Trippi: Edwards Should Not Have Run
EmailABC News’ Raelyn Johnson and Rick Klein report: With Elizabeth Edwards reportedly offering new details of her husband’s affair in her soon-to-be-released memoir, the senior political adviser to former senator John Edwards told ABC News Thursday that Edwards should never have run for president.
“There is no doubt that he changed the race on the war, on health care and on challenging special interests and lobbyists. But even with all that he probably should not have run,” Joe Trippi told ABC in an e-mail message Thursday.
Before details of Edwards’ extramarital affair came to light, Trippi had said he regretted not having pushed harder for the former senator to stay in the race and battle Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2008.
Edwards left the primary battle in late January, and he endorsed Obama in May — before Clinton dropped out, but after Obama appeared to have the nomination all-but secured.
Trippi’s comments come as tidbits of Elizabeth Edwards new memoir, "Resilience,” to be published May 12, emerge in press reports.
The New York Daily News reported Thursday that, according to the book, John Edwards admitted the betrayal to his wife just days after declaring his run for president in 2006. Elizabeth Edwards writes that she then asked her husband not to run for president in the 2008 campaign, to protect their family from public scrutiny.
“He should not have run,” she writes.
Elizabeth Edwards also writes that when she found out about her husband’s affair with Rielle Hunter, “I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up.”
John Edwards publicly confessed the affair with Hunter in an interview with ABC News in August of 2008.
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who cares.
this story is not newsworthy.
Posted by: Karen Q. | April 30, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
No one cares about John or Elizabeth Edwards anymore.
Posted by: Matt | April 30, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
Never mind having a child with someone else. I wonder if poor Elizabeth threw up then, too.
Posted by: Beth | April 30, 2009, 2:08 pm 2:08 pm
when will politician stop pointing fingers at one another, have they not learned “what goes around comes around”. 90 percent of them are guilty of the same issue.
Posted by: insight | April 30, 2009, 2:37 pm 2:37 pm
I remember reading a Kinsey report that said that within 4 years of marriage wives have started cheating on their husbands. Which is one year sooner than when husbands start cheating on their wives. It happens.
Posted by: Michael | April 30, 2009, 2:53 pm 2:53 pm
20-20 hindsight is all too common – and often all too wrong as well. I was never deeply impressed with Edwards: he had a bit too much the practiced charisma of a philandering televangelist. But Edwards probably did help steer the nomination to Obama – by forcing Clinton into defending herself against the wrong opponent – and that may have been a very good thing.
Clinton was a good candidate, but with her “baggage” she would have had a much harder time doing what Obama is doing right now. We are probably very fortunate that Obama – and not Clinton – faced McCain. And we may be likewise fortunate that Obama and not Clinton now faces the pressures of the presidency in these times of crisis. Certainly we are blessed that it is not McCain.
Posted by: Jordan | April 30, 2009, 3:36 pm 3:36 pm
Press wouldn’t even cover the scandal, let alone get it right. Tired of both Edwards.
Posted by: Mary Jo | April 30, 2009, 5:40 pm 5:40 pm
As with Elliot Spitzer, I do not dislike Edwards because of his indiscretion — but I will take whatever weapon is at hand to defeat this man. His lying and deception know no bounds, and his disdain for the us, the public, is extraordinary, even for a Democrat. Edwards — we are not an ignorant set of jurors you specially struck for their gullibility and we see right through your crocodile tears for the poor. Do you really think we bought your explaination for your work at a hedge fund (“I wanted to learn about the relationship between capitalism and poverty” — hint, hint, it is perfectly indirect)? Or that we don’t see that the medical system you so passionately want to save needs in fact to be saved from bottom feeding shyster lawyers like you who bring baseless claims against doctors and make your millions in this dishonest way while driving up insurance costs for doctors which are then passed on to patients? Enough already. Disappear.
Posted by: ProtectFreedom | April 30, 2009, 5:53 pm 5:53 pm
Poor of the Edwards need to just go away.
Posted by: Cathy | April 30, 2009, 6:28 pm 6:28 pm
Typical democrat family. Didn’t we used to have a President with the same problem?
Posted by: robtr | April 30, 2009, 6:33 pm 6:33 pm
All I have to say is “Karma”, what goes around, comes around. My sad thought for Elizabeth Edwards is since she knows that her cancer will never go away, what will happen when she is gone? If I were her, I would think my husband was just waiting for me to die so he can take up with this idiot “Hunter”. She’s a “hunter” alright, a man hunter!! But at the end of the day….if they’ll do it with you, they’ll do it TO YOU! He’ll get his!!
Posted by: Kristen | April 30, 2009, 6:34 pm 6:34 pm
Elizabeth always looked like John Edwards’ enabling Mother. Their “marriage” sounds like it was always a big mess.
Posted by: 2 mean? | April 30, 2009, 6:53 pm 6:53 pm
Is Rielle collecting child support from multi-millionaire John Edwards?
If not, why not?
Posted by: Toads | April 30, 2009, 6:54 pm 6:54 pm
““There is no doubt that he changed the race on the war, on health care and on challenging special interests and lobbyists.”
What malarkey! Edwards, the rich ambulance-chasing personal injury plaintiff’s lawyer. Ha!
But, he’s about the best the Dems can do in representing the “little guy.”
Posted by: AntonK | April 30, 2009, 6:56 pm 6:56 pm
I’m actually surprised their marriage survived. The death of a child usually ends even good marriages. The death of their 16 year old son, Wade several years ago had to strain even the best of unions. Anyway, I think Rielle’s kid looks like him. If I were Elizabeth, he would pay the price behind the scenes. It’s something I’d never let him forget. They need intensive counseling.
Posted by: Kristen | April 30, 2009, 7:08 pm 7:08 pm
I pity her, but it’s yet another book I would never buy or read. As for Edwards, he’ll always be the Breck Girl to me. Just a goof and a buffoon. I can’t believe anyone took him and his candidacy seriously. And yet he would have been better than the fraud and con artist we’ve got now.
Posted by: Peg C. | April 30, 2009, 7:50 pm 7:50 pm
Doesn’t anybody wonder who REALLY blew the whistle on him?
Posted by: BreakOut | April 30, 2009, 10:19 pm 10:19 pm
Whew… glad we dodged the bullet with that bimbo from Alaska!
Posted by: sherlock | May 1, 2009, 12:15 am 12:15 am
Sorry Elizabeth but it’s you and your husband that are the pathetic ones. I highly doubt this woman was your husband’s first affair.
Posted by: Nancy | May 1, 2009, 6:16 am 6:16 am
The Edwards need to stop making excuses for their poor choices. They’ve got enough money to live the rest of their lives without earning another penny. They need to buy a local restaurant and go away.
Posted by: Liz | May 1, 2009, 8:48 am 8:48 am
“pathetic”???
Oh, please don’t give us another betrayed spouse that blames the other woman. John Edwards is the only one that betrayed his wife. He is the only one that told her he would be faithful. There was no gun to his head. And lets be clear that whatever “Truth” he has shared with this wife it is only a very small fraction of the actual truth. It was to his benefit to make the other woman out to be pathetic.
Posted by: Lillian | May 1, 2009, 1:35 pm 1:35 pm
I have met both Senator and Elizabeth Edwards on several occasions as a volunteer during the campaign…Such warm, caring, and genuine people. The same was told to me by personal friends of theirs…
I will always be grateful to them for basically writing the Democratic platform…Thanks to them, we are talking about health care for all, standing strong for working class families, and standing up to the powerful special interests who control this country.
We all make mistakes…I honor both the Edwardses for their patriotism and dedication to our country.
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