Elizabeth Edwards Denies Endorsement Rumors

UPDATE: During an interview on Tuesday afternoon with MSNBC, Elizabeth Edwards denied rumors that her or her husband were on the verge of an endorsement. A rough transcript is below, or watch the video:

MSNBC: I do want to get you on this issue in terms of the news value. Can you say to me right here on MSNBC that you or your husband will not endorse in the next week? That is correct?

EDWARDS: I would be surprised. Things can happen at any day, as we found out today, a very big day on the political scene. So you never say never, so I don't know that the situation could not happen in the next week that would change our minds. But our current -- my current inclination is not to say any more than I have said. I'm willing to repeat it as many times as people want me to. John would have to speak for himself. He's also on vacation.

EARLIER:

With only days away from the North Carolina primary, what has become of John Edwards? While his wife has begun to take an active life in the political fray (including a few shots at John McCain's healthcare plan), the former presidential candidate has remained silent.

Today, Hillary Clinton will pick up a big endorsement from North Carolina governor Mike Easley. But the biggest North Carolina endorsement, Edwards himself, seems nowhere in sight. The New York Times reports on the conflicting pressure faced by John Edwards:

Many of Mr. Edwards's supporters in North Carolina have been quietly pressing him to endorse Mr. Obama, and a large group of them, led by Ed Turlington, his campaign chairman during the last presidential race, came forward publicly last week to support Mr. Obama.

On the other hand, Mrs. Edwards, her husband's closest and most trusted adviser, has made it clear that she favors Mrs. Clinton; aides said she had recently tried to persuade Mr. Edwards to do the same.

Read Huffposts continuing coverage of the North Carolina primary.

See the latest North Carolina polls.

Comments

[Agentlady007]

The News lady who belongs in a movie opposite Mel Gibson IMO --- should understand maybe The Edwards Campaign is expecting A Vice Presidential Knod.

[going2ireland]

Moderators - I am going to ask you again - please remove the vile and disgusting comments by "Fourthsign". This poster has no place here (or any respectable site, for that matter).

Moderators - please take the time to read this posters comments. Please. No one - and I mean no one - who comes here to Huffington Post, no matter their political or religious affiliation wants to read these disgusting comments.

Please do your job. It is mind boggling that you have banned many good posters here but continue to allow this filth to remain on the board.

[scorpioleidy]

WHY is her mouth still moving ... it's not like she's a Super-D, or even relevant to anything ...

[Vern58]

I think that John Edwards is a politician who wants to come out on top. He is a good man and his heart is in the right place on the poverty issue. God knows Elizabeth has done her time on both sides of the health care scandal. As much as i would like to see something out of both of them, they are looking out for their own best political interest. I cannot blame them for this.

[CallMeDeaconBlues]

One may even call him an opportunist or maybe an ambulance chaser.

[CallMeDeaconBlues]

John Edwards: What a spineless twit.

[hchriste]

She is an amazing lady and has accomplished a lot. Her assement of the McCain Health proposal is almost righ on. McCain is proposing a $5000.00 tax break for Health insurance, not a credit, this amounts to about a $800 tax credit. It is obvious he never shopped for Health Private Health insurance, family coverage is about $1200.00 a month depending upon number and age of children, pre-existing conditions not covered. Individual private insurance about $900.00 a month. Medicare part D about $250 a month and medicare an addittional $240 a month. Automatic renewable from year to year, except for Medicare, not guaranteeded. Lose your job and you pay full price yours and your employeers only for 18 months price and renewal not guaranteed. Throw in the co-pays, deductables, and the new way some insurance companies have of calculating co-pays on prescriptions by having tier 2 drugs paid by the patient on a percentage ( insulin users now can pay up to $400 a month for insulin) McCain's actual proposal of a cash value of $800 a year doesn't cut it. Wake up the country who support this poor plan.

[likeicare]

The Edwards' endorsement will mean very little.

Voters are pretty locked in at this point, and one or two endorsements, one way or the other, will not matter, even if they're from the Edwardses.

My guess is, the guys who supported JE will break for Obama and the gals will split for Hillary.

it will be a wash.

[MeLuvHillary]

Maybe he will endorse her b/c he knows more about her than you. From the from the blind-eyed, closed-eared, venom I've read, that wouldn't be hard.

[MeLuvHillary]

You people truly know nothing of the work she's done. You sit there at your keyboards pontificating, attributing every evil in the world to a women who has done more good than you or I will probably ever get around to in our lives. Does she have her problems? Yes. She is an imperfect public servant. But name one person (besides Barack, YAWN) who isn't. She has worked for the poor and downtrodden her entire life. Your ignorance of her good works does not make them any less real. Instead it serves to make you look foolish. Here is some of the work she's done off the top of my head.

1973: Worked for the Children"s Defense Fund
1973: Volunteered at New Haven Legal Services to provide legal advice for the poor
1977 Headed Legal Services Corporation under Pres Cater (legal services for the poor) (got budget tripled to 321 million)
1977: Co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families
1979: As chair of the Rural Health Advisory Committee for Arkansas, expanded medical facilities to poorest areas without effecting doctor"s fees
1986-1992- Chaired Children"s Defense Fund
1997- Played a large role is passing SCHIP (look it up)

[qwr]

How many years of experience does she claim? 35? How long did she work for the Children's D F in 1973? Nine months? If you add up the positive contributions over those years, and then subtract all the evil votes and speeches, the negative overwhelms the positive. Voted for Iraq, kyl/lieberman, the 1st bankruptcy bill, both patriot acts, telecom deregulation, against the banning of cluster bombs in civilian areas. She didn't challenge supreme court nominees, and paraded around drumming up support for a ban on flag burning.

[iLogos]

You forgot her being on the board of WalMart and praising their anti-union, purposeful mislabeling of non-American goods as American Made, and the use of sweat shop and slave labor to increase their bottom line, ways.

She is not Evil-incarnate... but she is far from the battler of truth and justice she likes to portray herself as. Sen. Obama is also flawed... but he does not disemble, hide his past, nor sherk from telling hard truths, just to score points with voters.

The sad truth is Sen. Clinton could easily have beaten Sen. Obama if she had simply stepped forward and been herself. All we wanted after 7 years of secrecy, pettiness, and calculation was honesty, authenticity, and someone who was willing to say and do the hard things because it was right, not because it was what we wanted to hear or because it would make us do things there way.

She has missed every opportunity to be the type of Presidential Candidate we could have ALL been proud of and instead seeks to drag one who may qualify down into the muck with her.

[ConnieB]

Look at the dates you refer to. Nothing of note in the last ten years?

I agree that Hillary has done some fine work for children and the poor in the past. But she has changed a lot over the last several years. I suspect that everything she has done recently is geared toward running for the presidency, toward getting her and Bill back into the White House, more so than about helping the people or this country to move forward.

[MeLuvHillary]

Yawn. Those were just the things I could provide dates for off the top of my head. I know more recent material, but don't know specific time periods. I'm studying for my finals right now, but will be glad to post more recent work with dates when I have to time to research it. Don't suppose you would want to look it up yourself, but then you might find she is not the demon you need her too be. Said it before and I say it agian. She's far from perfect, but she is so much better than people give her credit for. Hillary 08!

[BluzLady]

What an truly insensitive statement to make! IF you bothered to do a little research, you would KNOW Elizabeth has suffered from cancer... survived yes, but as a cancer survivor, I can tell you it consumes MUCH of your time and energy just treating it.

Shame on you!

[copernikus]

"1997- Played a large role is passing SCHIP (look it up)"

I did look it up, and this is what I found.

"But the Clinton White House, while supportive of the idea of expanding children's health, fought the first SCHIP effort, spearheaded by Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, because of fears that it would derail a bigger budget bill. And several current and former lawmakers and staff said Hillary Clinton had no role in helping to write the congressional legislation, which grew out of a similar program approved in Massachusetts in 1996.

"The White House wasn't for it. We really roughed them up" in trying to get it approved over the Clinton administration's objections, Hatch said in an interview. "She may have done some advocacy [privately] over at the White House, but I'm not aware of it."

"I do like her," Hatch said of Hillary Clinton. "We all care about children. But does she deserve credit for SCHIP? No - Teddy does, but she doesn't."

Gee, Orrin Hatch, who was there, remembers it differently than you. Look it up.

[MeLuvHillary]

Yawn. Teddy deserves credit huh. Well, let's see what Teddy had to say.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Oct. 6, 2007: The children's health program wouldn't be in existence today if we didn't have Hillary pushing for it from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/giving_hillary_credit_for_schip.html
Look it Up.

[MeLuvHillary]

And I can't help but notice you didn't cite your source. Yes, Hatch said that, but what about the rest of the aritcle. Where did it come from? Mine is from a professional non-partisian politcal website. Yours?

[MeLuvHillary]

"Hillary Clinton had no role in helping to write the congressional legislation"

Read the sentence closely. Ofcourse she didn't write the legislation; she wasn't in Congress at the time. Hardly proof that she didn't play a substantial role. Look it up.

[nellie]

I'm glad she cleared this up. The press reporting an endorsement from Elizabeth puts John in an uncomfortable place. I don't want him to endorse at all.

[nellie]

During an interview on Tuesday afternoon with MSNBC, Elizabeth Edwards denied rumors that her or her husband were on the verge of an endorsement. A rough transcript is below, or watch the video:

HuffPo, please correct the grammar in this sentence. Thank you.

[going2ireland]

Will you moderators please pay attention to what Fourthsign is posting here!!! This poster can't be flagged enough.

Please get this poster off the boards. This person truly makes me sick to my stomach - and it takes an awful lot to do that!!!!

[nclayla]

I agree - he has been flagged and flagged!

He has gone way beyond what should be tolerated. Please remove him from our site.

Thanks!!

[mlaiuppa]

Elizabeth Edwards supports Hillary Clinton. If she's now denying that, it's only so she can work on John to join her and they can endorse as a couple.

[qwr]

Even if EE has been grossly misled in this case, she still seems like a nice lady, and I hope she is in good health.

[qwr]

In the interview, EE is introduced as a "senior fellow at the CAP." But in the caption, she is described as, "wife of fmr. pres. candidate." Obviously, the latter earned her the former, but isn't it just a little ridiculous? I'm sure a Clinton staff member said, "Let's offer EE a fancy title, like "senior fellow," and also offer her a bit of money. I'm sure that will get the Edwardses. Heck, it worked!