McCain, Hillary Clinton react to news of Edwards affair
(CNN) - John McCain was tight-lipped Friday afternoon when it came to answering any questions about former U.S. Senator and Democratic hopeful John Edwards's admittance to having an extramarital affair. Edwards acknowledged he had had an affair with a former aide in 2006 but denied being the father of her baby. McCain told reporters "I don't have any comment on that" during a press conference in Rogers, Arkansas.
In Nevada, New York Senator Hillary Clinton said her "thoughts and prayers are with the Edward's family today" when asked if she thought her party would suffer any repercussions because of the scandal. Senator Clinton held an impromptu press conference following a campaign event in Las Vegas for Barack Obama where the statement was made.
TIME: An Antichrist Obama in McCain Ad?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/01/art.mccainad.cnn.jpg caption="Some are asking: was there a subliminal message in the McCain Web ad?"] WASHINGTON - It's not easy to make the infamous Willie Horton ad from the 1988 presidential campaign seem benign. But suggesting that Barack Obama is the Antichrist might just do it.
That's just what some outraged Christian supporters of the Democratic nominee are claiming John McCain's campaign did in an ad called "The One" that was recently released online. The Republican nominee's advisers brush off the charges, arguing that the spot was meant to be a "creative" and "humorous" way of poking fun at Obama's popularity by painting him as a self-appointed messiah. But even this innocuous interpretation of the ad — which includes images of Charlton Heston as Moses and culled clips that make Obama sound truly egomaniacal — taps into a conversation that has been gaining urgency on Christian radio and political blogs and in widely circulated e-mail messages that accuse Obama of being the Antichrist.
Former Edwards adviser says he made payments to Hunter, Young
(CNN) - Fred Baron, the finance chairman for the John Edwards presidential campaign, said in a Friday statement that he paid to help the woman Edwards had an extramarital affair with, and the former aide who was the alleged father of her child, move out of the former North Carolina senator’s home state.
“I decided independently to help two friends and former colleagues rebuild their lives when harassment by supermarket tabloids made it impossible for them to move forward on their own,” he said of his efforts to aid Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young.
“I did this of my own volition without the instruction or suggestion of anyone, and made a conscious decision not to tell anyone, including John Edwards, that assistance was provided,” he added. “The assistance was offered and accepted without condition. This is now and shall always remain a private matter between these individuals and me.”
Hunter and Young lived separately at an upscale development in Chapel Hill, and later in Santa Barbara, California.
Elizabeth Edwards: 'Our family has been through a lot'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/08/art.edwardsfamily.ap.jpg caption="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.
CNN=Politics Daily
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/images/01/23/art.cepd.cnn.jpg caption="CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from The Best Political Team."]
(CNN)— Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards confirmed months of speculation, acknowledging an extramarital affair Friday. In the latest installment of CNN=Politics Daily, Drew Griffin with CNN’s Special Investigations Unit has the details.
On the campaign trail Friday, Barack Obama works to make the Clintons happy as the Democratic convention in Denver nears. CNN’s Jessica Yellin reports on whether Clinton’s die-hard supporters could cause trouble for the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Overseas, Russia launched a shocking attack on the Republic of Georgia Friday. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr reports on what this means for U.S. troops, while Wolf Blitzer gives you McCain and Obama’s responses to the attack.
Finally: In a podcast exclusive, CNN’s Jennifer Mikell serves up your weekly does of Trail Mix—the most memorable moments on the campaign trail making news this week.
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Edwards: 'I have been stripped bare'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/08/art.edwards0808.ap.jpg caption="Edwards: ‘I am ashamed of my conduct and choices.”"] John Edwards released a statement Friday following a report that he had admitted an extra-marital affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter.
Watch: Edwards: 'I sin every single day'
STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS
August 8, 2008
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough.
Cafferty: Is John Edwards’ political career over?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/08/art.edwards.ring.ap.jpg caption="John Edwards tells ABC News he had an extramarital affair."]
In the end, he was too good to be true. John Edwards rode onto the national stage with a compelling message about poverty, about corporations that prey on the vulnerable. He had a record of standing up for the little guy…and he got very rich doing it.
He was tailor-made for politics – good looking with "aw-shucks" kind of country boy charm. He got to the Senate, onto the ticket as vice president in 2004 and was in the running for the White House himself for a while earlier this year.
Now it's all over. After denying it for months, John Edwards has finally admitted in an interview to be broadcast on ABC's Nightline tonight that he had an extramarital affair with a woman who worked on his campaign.
To read more and contribute to the Cafferty File discussion click here
Edwards admits lying about affair, says ABC
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/05/16/art.edobama.gi.jpg caption="Edwards endorsed Obama in May."](CNN) - Former U.S. senator and Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards admitted to an extramarital affair in an interview with ABC News, the network reported Friday. He denied being the father of the woman's child, as had been alleged in tabloid reports.
Watch: Edwards met Hunter at a bar
Asked by a reporter late last month whether he had provided any financial support to Rielle Hunter, or to Andrew Young - the former Edwards aide who claimed paternity of the child - Edwards replied that "I have no idea what you are asking about, I have responded to consistently to these tabloid allegations by saying I don't respond to these lies." He also said again that he had not lied during his presidential campaign when he denied an affair with Hunter.
Election Center: The John Edwards File
Speaking to the network for a story to be aired Friday night, Edwards acknowledged the affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter, which began after she was hired to make documentary videos for his campaign, ABC said.
He said he has not taken a paternity test, but that the timing of the affair rules out the possibility that he could be her baby girl's father.
Obama camp says McCain cost Ohio jobs
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/01/art.obama0801.gi.jpg caption="A new Obama radio ad says McCain cost Ohio jobs."]
(CNN) - Sen. Barack Obama's campaign released a tough new Ohio radio ad Friday that said Sen. John McCain and his campaign manager Rick Davis were partly responsible for the potential loss of thousands of Ohio jobs.
"[T]here’s something John McCain's not telling you: It was McCain who used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio," says the announcer in the new spot, which includes recordings of the presumptive Republican nominee promising "straight talk."
"And that's not all: McCain's campaign manager was the top lobbyist for the DHL deal...helped push it through. His firm was paid $185,000 to lobby McCain and other senators. Now 8,200 Ohioans are facing layoffs, and foreign-owned DHL doesn't care.... John McCain. Same old politics. Same failed policies."
Listen: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe discusses the tough new ad
DHL is considering moves that would result in the loss of than 8,000 jobs in Wilmington, Ohio. McCain visited the town Thursday, as workers continued to protest the proposed cuts.
UPDATE: The McCain team fought back Friday afternoon. "The Obama campaign's hysterical reaction to our latest ad shows just how far they'll go in attacking anyone who discusses Barack Obama's actual record and the impact of his plans on American families. In Barack Obama's rarefied universe, votes and actions have no consequences," said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers in a statement.
Listen: The McCain campaign blasts the Obama radio ad in a conference call with reporters
"This allows him to say he opposed the Bush-Cheney energy policy when in fact he voted for it. And this allows him to say he is on the side of the middle class when he voted for tax increases on people making just $42,000 per year. The bottom line is that Barack Obama's plans for higher taxes on oil means higher prices at the pump and his plans for increasing taxes on businesses and investment means fewer jobs for hardworking Americans,” said Rogers.
McCain visits the Iowa State Fair
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/08/08/art.statefair.cnn.jpg caption="McCain visited this giant hog, 'Freight Train', while touring the Iowa State Fair Swine Barn."] DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) - There were the familiar deep-fried candy bars, the colorful booths selling meats-on-sticks, and two hogs that weighed in at more than half a ton. But unlike the 2007 Iowa State Fair, which featured a posse of presidential hopefuls hunting for votes around nearly every corner, this year's event only saw one: John McCain.
The soon-to-be GOP nominee arrived in at the fair late Friday morning and first marched to one of his "favorite spots to visit in this whole fair," the vast and malodorous Swine Barn, where he observed "Freight Train," a champion Yorkshire boar from Webster City that weighs 1,259 pounds. The hog slept through McCain's visit.
McCain shook hands with Iowans and moved on to the fabled soapbox area of the fair grounds, a humble patch of grass surrounded by hay bales that's reserved for politicians, but which didn't actually feature a soapbox.
"This is what America is all about," he said. "This is the people I want to know and meet. And when the rigors of a presidential campaign, people talk about it, I get a chance to come here and meet and greet the real America. The people that are providing products all over this world, all over the world."
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