Elizabeth Edwards: 'John made a terrible mistake in 2006.'

Elizabeth Edwards posted a statement on the Daily Kos Web site Friday about her husband's confession that he had had an extramarital affair.

FULL STATEMENT FOLLOWS:

Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some – most recently – caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences. None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him.

John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well. Because of a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication, because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.

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John and Elizabeth Edwards made an appearance at Sen. Obama's speech in North Carolina Monday.

Photo credit: AP.

Watch Dana Bash's interview with Elizabeth Edwards.

(CNN)—Elizabeth Edwards, who has made her opposition to John McCain’s health care policy evident in recent months, kept up her assault on his newly-released health care proposal Tuesday, calling the plan a complete “disaster.”

“The fear of a government-run program is completely a false boogeyman in this race,” since neither Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton have proposed a government takeover of the nation’s health care system, Edwards told CNN’s Dana Bash

“Senator McCain has decided if he puts up this red herring that he’ll be able to shoot it down and make him look better,” said Edwards.

The presumptive Republican nominee is in the midst of a week-long tour highlighting his own newly-announced health care reform proposal, which emphasizes personal responsibility and market-driven savings.

“We must move away from a system that is fragmented and pays for expensive procedures toward one where a family has a medical home…where the focus is on affordable quality outcomes,” McCain said earlier this week.

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John and Elizabeth Edwards are joined by their children in New Orleans as Edwards announced the end of his presidential campaign in January.

(CNN) – Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, is picking sides in the Democratic nomination race – at least with respect to health care. In an interview that aired Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” she threw her support behind Sen. Hillary Clinton’s health care plan.

“In order to ensure that we have universal coverage, we need to say everybody has to join,” Edwards told ABC’s Robin Roberts. “So, for that reason, the mandates that Sen. Clinton is talking about, I think are going to be more successful in achieving the goal,” she added.

Both health care plans have the same goals, said Edwards, but “I just have more confidence in Sen. Clinton’s policies than Sen. Obama’s on this particular issue.”

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Elizabeth Edwards has taken a fellowship at Harvard.

(CNN) — Elizabeth Edwards has taken a visiting fellowship at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Edwards, the wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, fellowship will occur next week, the school announced Wednesday. She will make a public address in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on April 9.

Earlier: Elizabeth Edwards takes aim at McCain health care plan

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina (AP) — Vincent Anania, the father-in-law of onetime Democratic presidential contender and former Sen. John Edwards, has died. He was 87.

Anania died Saturday in Chapel Hill of heart failure, the senator's wife, Elizabeth Edwards, said in a statement.

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Elizabeth Edwards

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN)– ­ Just two days after the CNN debates in Las Vegas, Elizabeth Edwards encouraged voters to examine their choices in the presidential field and pick a candidate for reasons other than breaking the proverbial "glass ceiling."

"There are a lot of reasons, I think, to support a number of candidates in this race," Elizabeth told the crowd of New Hampshire democrats. "I think we have a lot of ceilings, glass ceilings, to break and I'm confidant that we will in the years to come."

While Elizabeth did not mention the New York Senator by name, her words spoke to her husband's campaign efforts to woo women voters, a key voting block, away from frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.

The New York senator has campaigned aggressively to win support among women voters and has called her presidential bid an opportunity to break the ultimate glass ceiling.

"America is ready for change ­ and I believe women will lead that change," Clinton says on her website. "It¹s up to us to do our part to take back the White House and change this country, and that¹s exactly what we¹re going to do. I say this nation can shatter the highest glass ceiling ­ because that¹s what Americans have been doing for over 200 years."

The Edwards camp has strengthened its women voter outreach in the Granite state. Last weekend, Edwards' daughter, Cate, campaigned with former President of NARAL Pro-Choice America, Kate Michelman, to launch New Hampshire Women for Edwards. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Michelman noted that the women's vote was still up for grabs.

"Women are not a monolithic vote," Michelman told CNN at a Feminist health clinic in Greenland. "Nor are all women going to vote just because we have a woman. We've worked very hard as a women's movement for many decades to get to the point where women are looked at wholly, not just as females, not through the lens of our gender."

Speaking on behalf of her husband Saturday, Elizabeth highlighted what the campaign has described as key "populist" themes: fighting against the influence of money in politics and serving as an advocate for the disenfranchised.

"Once we take the money of the powerful, how good an advocate are we for those people who depend on us to be their champion," Elizabeth questioned.

Said Elizabeth, "Right now we also have a really important ceiling to break and that is the influence in our lives of money," in regards to the influence of lobbyist money in politics. "Right now the ceiling on top of us is not glass, it's made of money. And we need to break it."

Click here to see CNN's new political portal: CNNPolitics.com

–CNN New Hampshire Producer Sareena Dalla

Jeri Thompson, Michelle Obama, Ann Romney, Elizabeth Edwards, and Cindy McCain put aside the competitiveness of the campaign trail on Tuesday to talk about being political spouses.

(CNN) – Fifteen years after Hillary Clinton made her then-controversial comment about being a career woman and not staying home to bake cookies, the wives of five contenders for the White House gathered in California Tuesday to discuss their involvement in their husband’s presidential campaigns.

The wives’ discussion with moderator Maria Shriver, wife of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, began with Shriver pointing out that the gathering was historic. “Never before,” Shriver said, have political spouses, “gathered together to talk about their lives, to talk about the campaign trail, to talk about what it’s like when someone from your family gets up and runs for president.”

And talk they did. Shriver asked Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, what she had feared or worried about in the early days of her husband contemplating a run for the White House. “You always worry about your life getting sucked out from under you,” Mrs. Obama responded. “I’m very practical, I have to know how is this going to play out.”

For her part, Jeri Thompson, wife of Fred Thompson, sought to dash persistent reports that she has a prominent, strategic role in her husband’s presidential campaign. “I have a one-year-old,” Thompson said. “And, I have a four-year-old. That’s my main role,” Thompson said. “Other than that, I do what I can to help when he asks me.”

Elizabeth Edwards was not as modest as Jeri Thompson in explaining her involvement in John Edwards’ campaign. “We do know our husbands best. Sometimes if we think he’s being misrepresented or misserved by something, it’s our jobs as wives to say, ‘you know, I don’t think that’s really the best thing,’” said Edwards.

Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain and a veteran of a past White House run, brought a different perspective to the discussion. “My boundaries changed from 2000 to this race,” she said. “I have now myself learned to say no” to some of the demands of a presidential campaign.

Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann, spoke about the pressures of being a political wife. Gesturing towards Elizabeth Edwards, Romney rejected the assumption that statements or stances taken by the women always originate from their husband’s campaigns. “You have to be who you are. You have to have the flexibility and the luxury of expressing yourself for who we are as individuals,” said Romney.

The discussion was part of the 2007 Women’s Conference, a non-partisan annual event put on by California’s governor and first lady for the last twenty years. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, Shriver said former President Bill Clinton did not participate in the spouses’ panel because of a scheduling conflict and that Judith Giuliani, wife of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, “declined to attend.”

– CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart

Watch Elizabeth Edwards explain why her husband should win the White House.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, D-North Carolina, was in the Situation Room Monday. She discussed healthcare, what it's like to be a candidate's spouse, and two of her husband's White House rivals — Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, R-New York. Watch Wolf Blitzer's interview with Mrs. Edwards.

Click here to see CNN's new political portal: CNNPolitics.com

Elizabeth Edwards said her husband John didn't want to concede the 2004 election.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, criticized Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, Thursday over his decision to concede the 2004 election to President Bush so quickly after election night.

Mrs. Edwards, whose husband was the vice presidential nominee in 2004, said in an interview with Air America's Richard Greene she was "very disappointed" then-Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry chose not to contend the election result in the crucial swing state of Ohio — where he lost by approximately 120,000 votes.

"I was very disappointed, not just because we did not count the votes, but because we promised people that if they stood in line and fought for the right to vote, that we would fight with them," Mrs. Edwards said. "And I was very disappointed that the decision was made by the campaign, over John’s objection, not to fight."

Mrs. Edwards added that reported voting irregularities in Ohio caused "a lot to be suspicious about" and said the real winners of the 2004 election would likely never be known.

"I don't think we're going to ever know [who won] and that's a shame," she said. "Certainly there's a lot to be suspicious about."

"We're never going to have the kind of certainty we need to have," Mrs. Edwards continued. "I don't care if I find out the evening in the first Tuesday of November. If I don't find out until Friday who the president is but I am pretty sure it’s the right answer, that's fine with me."

Conceding the election in Boston the day after polls closed, Kerry said, "The outcome should be decided by voters, not a protracted legal process. I would not give up this fight if there was a chance that we would prevail, but it is now clear that even when all the provisional ballots are counted, which they will be, there won't be enough outstanding votes for us to be able to win Ohio."

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Edwards said he embraces his "wife speaking her mind."

ONBOARD THE CNN ELECTION EXPRESS, New Hampshire (CNN) – Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards on Thursday vigorously defended his wife, who has come under fire for her sharp criticisms of one of his chief rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Edwards dismissed speculation that Elizabeth Edward’s high profile role in the campaign is hurting his candidacy, during a wide ranging interview with CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley.

“First of all, I embrace my wife speaking her mind,” Edwards said. “She is a strong woman, got her own opinions. She doesn’t and should not ask me whether she can express her opinion.”

He added, “Does she say some things that are different than what I say? Yeah, of course. We are two different people. We are not the same person. There is nothing unexpected about that. I hope she’ll keep speaking her mind.”

– CNN Political Editor Mark Preston

Elizabeth Edwards stepped up her attack on Clinton's health care record Monday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Elizabeth Edwards, the outspoken wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, stepped up her attacks over rival Hillary Clinton's record on health care Monday, alleging the New York Democrat abandoned her effort in the 1990’s to save "political capital."

In an interview with the New York Daily News, Mrs. Edwards said Clinton's first attempt at health care reform "failed when the Clinton administration….said, 'We're not going to use any more political capital on this, on the fight for universal health care.' And that's an important part that Sen. Clinton leaves out."

"The stick-to-it-iveness, the determination to get it done when there was opposition both from the Republicans and from the entrenched insurance interests, that part wasn't there," Mrs. Edwards added.

Edwards further alleged, as she did in an interview with CNN last week, that Clinton and her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, abandoned the health care fight in order to focus on passing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through Congress.

John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, is heavily courting labor unions, many of which continue to adamantly oppose NAFTA.

While her husband often refuses to criticize his opponents directly, Mrs. Edwards has assumed an increasingly vocal role in the campaign. In the interview with CNN last week, she suggested Clinton had copied the Edwards health care proposal released months earlier.

"I don't call it Sen. Clinton's health care plan," she said last week. "I call it John Edwards' health care plan as delivered by Hillary Clinton. The truth is that anyone who tries to describe Hillary's health care plan will run through every material part of John's health care plan."

In the interview with CNN, Mrs. Edwards also said of Clinton's earlier attempt at health care, "I am glad she did that health care plan. I was impressed with her when she did it. But did she learn something from it? I can't see what she's learned."

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Watch Mrs. Edwards criticize Clinton's health care plan in an interview with CNN.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) – Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, attacked Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan Wednesday as a carbon copy of her husband's plan, and accused the New York Democrat of selling lobbyists insider access to the government.

In an interview with CNN before attending a rally here for protestors on behalf of six African-American students in Jena, Louisiana, Mrs. Edwards accused Clinton of "insider cronyism" and trading political access for campaign donations. This comes on the heels of similar sentiments put forth by her husband in recent weeks.

"You can have a meeting with a member of Congress if you donate to Hillary's campaign," said Mrs. Edwards. "What this is saying is she's willing to sell special access to the government if you just have the check. Isn't that just exactly what John is saying we shouldn't be doing?"

Mrs. Edwards also said that she sees almost no differences between Clinton's health care plan, unveiled Monday in Des Moines, and that of her husband.

"I don't call it Senator Clinton's health care plan," Edwards said. "I call it John Edwards' health care plan as delivered by Hillary Clinton. The truth is that anyone who tries to describe Hillary's health care plan will run through every material part of John's health care plan.

"I just have to wonder, if John released his plan at the beginning of February, what took her seven and a half months to endorse it? We're glad for the endorsement."

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Elizabeth Edwards told TIME 'hatred' of Clinton will energize the GOP.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Elizabeth Edwards, the outspoken wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, says her husband is more electable than rival Hillary Clinton because "hatred" of the New York Democrat will energize Republicans.

“I don't know where it comes from. I don't begin to understand it. But you can't pretend it doesn't exist, and it will energize the Republican base," Mrs. Edwards said in an interview with Time Magazine.

"Their nominee won't energize them, Bush won't, but Hillary as the nominee will. It's hard for John to talk about, but it's the reality," she added.

Mrs. Edwards has increasingly assumed a visible role in her husband's campaign and has made several sharp statements, including a strong critique of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's record on women's issues, a biting characterization of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as "holier than thou," and a confrontation with conservative commentator Ann Coulter on MSNBC.

She also came under fire last month for telling an interviewer, "we can't make John black, we can't make him a woman" and argued her husband receives less media attention because he lacks the interesting stories of his chief rivals.

Addressing those controversial comments, Edwards told Time, "The media goes to this very engaging story about a legitimate woman candidate and a legitimate candidate with an African-American heritage, and that drives up their fund-raising numbers. Then the media folks say, 'See, that proves we were right to focus on these two candidates.'"

“It's enough to make you tear your hair out," she added.

The Clinton campaign has yet to respond to CNN's request for comment on Mrs. Edwards' remarks.

TIME.com: John Edwards Bets the Farm

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Elizabeth Edwards continues to play a prominent role in her husband's campaign.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) – The Democratic Party has ignored Southern voters in the past and it's unlikely two of the major Democratic presidential candidates — Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama — will spend much time in the South, said Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic candidate John Edwards.

She told a group of her husband's supporters at a fundraiser Tuesday: "You see Democrats all the time write off states like Tennessee, North Carolina, too."

"We didn't campaign with a single ad in North Carolina last time and we had a North Carolinian on the ballot. Why? Because they didn't think a Democrat could win North Carolina," Edwards said. Bush won the state.

Edwards answered questions of supporters who each paid at least $15 to see her at a Nashville restaurant.

Edwards said Democratic values parallel more closely with Southern values than those of the Republican Party, because of emphasis on family and small community issues, such as child care credits and universal health insurance.

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Watch CNN's Kiran Chetry interview Elizabeth Edwards.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Elizabeth Edwards has become a key player in her husband's second bid for the White House, but she insisted in a CNN interview Wednesday that she's the same person she has always been.

"I think that I've not really changed," Edwards told CNN's Kiran Chetry on "American Morning." "People who do know me from 2004 know that I haven't actually changed."

Her husband, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

Elizabeth Edwards added that during her husband's first White House run four years ago — before her public battle with breast cancer — she received considerably less media attention than she does now.

"I was traveling on a news free zone before — nobody really covered me," she said. "I would be in smaller markets talking to smaller groups usually of women about women's issues — and had very little press. Now, there's more press."

In recent months, Elizabeth Edwards has made several sharp statements, including a strong critique of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's record on women's issues, a biting characterization of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as "holier than thou," and a confrontation with conservative commentator Ann Coulter on MSNBC.

She also came under fire last month for telling an interviewer, "we can't make John black, we can't make him a woman" and argued her husband receives less media attention because he lacks the interesting stories of his chief rivals.

Elizabeth Edwards told CNN Wednesday she could have phrased that point better, saying "I think the press is legitimately interested in what is really a fascinating story — a candidate with an African-American heritage and women candidate.

"I don't begrudge the press being interested in it but it is hard to get a candidate who doesn't have those atmospherics and just trying to talk about policy into the discussion," she added.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Elizabeth Edwards has been an outspoken critic of her husband's opponents.

NEW YORK (AP) — Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic candidate John Edwards, lambastes his rival Barack Obama as "holier than thou" on the Iraq war and accuses Hillary Clinton of failing to show leadership on health care and Iraq.

As her husband trails Clinton and Obama in national polls, Elizabeth Edwards has been an outspoken critic of his opponents. Last month, she said her husband would be a better champion for women as president than Clinton and more recently said, "We can't make John black, we can't make him a woman. Those things get you a lot of press, worth a certain amount of fundraising dollars."

In an interview published in the August issue of The Progressive magazine, Elizabeth Edwards complained about Obama, who opposed the war when he was a state legislator in Illinois but has voted for funds for the military.

John Edwards, then a North Carolina senator, voted in 2002 to authorize the military invasion of Iraq. Since then, he has said his vote was a mistake. He also voted against several funding requests while in the Senate — but not all, as Elizabeth Edwards claimed in the interview.

"And honestly, the other candidates?" Elizabeth Edwards asked. "Obama gives a speech that's likely to be extraordinarily popular in his home district, and then comes to the Senate and votes for funding … So you are going to get people behaving in a holier-than-thou way. But John stood up when he was in the Senate for exactly the thing he's asking these people to stand up for now."

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Elizabeth Edwards said her husband is utilizing the Internet to gain publicity.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, is gaining attention for recent comments on why her husband may receive less attention from the media – and campaign cash — than the two leading Democratic candidates.

"We can't make John black, we can't make him a woman," said Edwards, referring to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton during an interview with Ziff Davis Media about the Internet's role in the 2008 presidential election. "Those things get you a certain amount of fundraising dollars."

The interview was published Monday.

Considered a top tier presidential candidate, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards lags significantly behind Clinton and Obama in fundraising and in national polls.

During the interview, Elizabeth Edwards attributed the Internet as a way to bypass the "sieve of mainstream media" and reach voters despite receiving less publicity than her husband's chief rivals.

"The idea that you have people standing between you and the voter is diminished, and the capacity to speak directly empowers candidates to trust their own voices," she said.

"Now it's nice to get on the news, but not the be all and end all," Edwards added.

Eric Schultz, a spokesman for Edwards' campaign, told CNN Tuesday that Elizabeth Edwards was "noting what countless reporters and pundits have said for months, that Senators Clinton and Obama get a lot of media attention, and deservedly so, because of the potential ‘firsts’ of their candidacies.”

"But the reality is, with so many candidates in this race, we just have to work a little harder to get our message out and inform the people about John Edwards’ bold vision for America," he added.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

John and Elizabeth Edwards celebrate their 30th anniversary at Wendy's.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — John and Elizabeth Edwards took a break from their hectic campaign schedules on Monday to celebrate their annual tradition — eating their anniversary dinner at Wendy's.

The tradition started on their first anniversary, when the Edwards were in the middle of moving and too busy for a formal dinner. They decided to continue it and have eaten there every year since.

The couple celebrated their 30th anniversary at a Wendy's in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

–CNN Associate Producer Lauren Kornreich

Hillary and Bill Clinton campaigned in Keene, New Hampshire last week.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former President Bill Clinton defended his wife’s record on women’s issues Thursday, two days after Elizabeth Edwards contended her husband would be a stronger advocate for women than his Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton.

"If you look at the record on women's issues, I defy you to find anybody who has run for office in recent history whose got a longer history of working for women, for families and children than Hillary does," the former president said in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America.

In an interview with the online magazine Salon Tuesday, Edwards said Clinton is “just not as vocal a women’s advocate as I want to see. John is.”

"Keeping that door open to women is actually more a policy of John's than Hillary's," Elizabeth Edwards added, noting that she was “sympathetic” to the fact that “sometimes you feel you have to behave as a man and not talk about women's issues.”

“I don't think she's trying to be a man,” Bill Clinton said Thursday about his wife. “I don't think it's inconsistent with being a woman that you can also be knowledgeable on military and security affairs and be strong when the occasion demands it.

“That's — I don't consider that being manly. I consider that being a leader,” he added.

An Edwards campaign spokesman declined to discuss Elizabeth Edward’s comments directly, but told CNN Tuesday she “believes her husband is the best candidate for president and she thinks that her husband would be the best advocate on healthcare, on education, on women’s issues and the fight to end poverty.”

Both Bill Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards have taken visible roles in the presidential campaigns of their spouses. Bill Clinton recently joined his wife on the campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire, while Elizabeth is the star of a new television ad for her husband running in the Granite State.

Programming Note: Elizabeth Edwards joins CNN’s Larry King tonight at 9 p.m. ET to discuss her recent comments about Hillary Clinton, among other topics.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney