what the people loved about eliot spitzer know second guessing, no debate on a crusade, charging ahead to systemic change, steamrolling enemies, cutting red tape and his path his accomplishments were tangible and exceedingly rare, which makes it hard not to mourn what we may have lost with the downfall of the sheriff of wall street but it was his zealous belief in his own righteousness that made eliot spitzer self destruction inevitable. >> and that might be why the story so chilling former president trump was a steamroller in the white house and it landed in insurrection on the steps of the capitol if we can't shake our addiction to strongman to those utterly convinced of their own greatness. there will be many more likes. bits are in positions of power posing even bigger threats to our fragile democracy. crusaders wanting their portraits on the walls of history every governor of new york has the chance to be immortalized in a painting that hangs in the new york state capital. a self-directed monument to his or her own illustrious its legacy. all of

them are, they're all but two the first served in the early 19th century and left note likenesses behind. the second is it spitzer in 2009, south carolina governor mark sanford was a republican rockstar his reputation as a budget slashing deficit hawk family man had the gop betting on him to beat obama in 2012 until he became a missing person the search for sanford through his office into chaos and turned up a secret love affair and a bizarre set of lies that coined the phrase two hike, the appalachian trail. but it also revealed something deeper. how even the most tightly controlled political persona can mask the messy, imperfect reality of a

human being and counter-intuiti vely, when the world was crashing down around him bearing at all might have been the savviest political move of mark sanford is career it's monday night. do you know where your governor is? that's what the citizens have south carolina are wondering where in the world is our governor of mystery tonight in south carolina, the state's governor, mark sanford, disappeared four days. governor alert the search for mark sanford in june 2009, south carolina governor mark sanford became a missing person. news began to go round and south carolina getting the papers like no one knows where the governor is. the south carolina governor is missing. where is he? is he dead somewhere in a

ditch? >> with each day that tick by the mystery group, many in south carolina, i don't know where he is, not even his wives, just so strange this well-known father of four young boys wasn't home for father's day and more and more people started asking the headliner today is local paper says sanford awol, who's in charge. it was going to complete think dereliction of duty. imagine if there was a mass shooting or hurricane or anything. i think all of us are concerned. we're worried about where he might be speculation was rampant. >> some people thought he was ed, the fringe, few thought he'd been abducted by aliens. it was only after he'd been gone for nearly a week and sanford staff finally offered an explanation where he was his staff said he was hiking the appalachian trail. >> tonight, we find out this email coming through just a few minutes ago, the governor is actually hiking the appalachian trail, the governor is said to be quote, clearing his head somewhere along the appalachian

trail that stretches from georgia to the main, the governor there's hiking the appalachian trail why would that be such a big secret reporter with the state newspaper had gotten a tip that marks inferred never went anywhere near at the appalachian trail that goes nowhere near argentina, which is actually where he had been what could compel a sitting governor to up and leave his state all the way to argentina without any kind of notice at all the answer could only come from mark sanford himself. the bottom line is this. i have been unfaithful from my life i developed a relationship with a dear, dear friend turned out he was a man in love is cover is now blown. >> mark sanford was not after all, hiking by himself on the appalachian trail, making the appalachian trail which then instantly entered the lexicon as a euphemism for an affair was hiking on the appalachian

trail, which is a trail that starts in maine and ends in an argentine woman's it was all over the late night shows. >> it was every monologue, hiking what do you mean? >> what's that looks like i was hiking neapolis who is just such a huge contribution to the english language so the guy had an affair when was really sloppy about covering it up. >> he's hardly the first politician to do that. but there was something about this man dropping off the grid to see his secret international lover that truly shocked people myself included full disclosure. i was friendly with mark and ginny sanford. i first met them more than 20 years ago when i was covering the south carolina primary my now wife and i watched the super bowl at the governor's mansion in 2004 mark going awol, reading poetry in the bible while on a week long solo hike. that frankly seeing totally believable. so

when folks begins speculating about cd possibilities, i wrongly wrote it off as the worst kind of sensationalist journalism and when it was proven true, i felt don i felt duped for naive lee believing that i ever knew mark sanford, the person when i really only knew mark sanford the politician. and i wasn't the only one right there with me caught between image and reality. was sanford is closest aid. his former chief of staff scott english thank you so much for sitting down with us. you worked for mark sanford from 96 to 2015, is that yes. i have my impression of him, which was that he was a nice, affable guy he issued a proclamation for our wedding, which i do not have hanging up in my house anymore. but my point is i knew him and i liked him and jenny and marshall and bobo and blake. and landon what did you think of them? i love and

respect this guy. i put in a lot of effort with this guy okay. i missed a lot of my children's life for this guy which by the way is why i've never done an interview about this ever in my life. and until today, but i could just never imagine him i can know game. i mean, he just didn't and when someone threw out to me that maybe he had a mistress, i just laughed and said there's no way this guy has got a mistress. you and i both thinking that was actually on the appalachian trail is good. i mean made me feel better. i'm like, yeah, that makes sense. he's a weirdo maybe you think we're being dramatic, are exaggerating. how could we be so shocked at a politician having an affair? but you got to understand mark sanford had one of the most convincing political persona's in the game. in this was the guy we thought we knew. >> time magazine named you one of the five most boring governors in america that staying what you learn in politics. we're going to be some folks that don't like us,

some folks that love us and the real key is are we staying true to what we believe in what, what, what we promised the voters in the first place. and then you can live with that and sort of leave it alone with the other 49% because you are going to please everybody you are incredibly boring i was, i was actually there when that was filled it was like, yeah, you're boring. >> you were like manila envelope stapled to a brown wall, boring? yeah oh, that's completely accurate, which is again, why we were just like completely shocked that it was very passionate, emotional affair with this woman another side of the continent, it was just completely out of character or for what we thought we knew about the guy here's the thing i can accept that politics is a bit like professional wrestling. candidates play a part to make headlines and win elections. but there's a fine line between marketing and outright deception. and mark sanford

scandal made me question is there any truth to a political persona? and what's the cost of keeping it up? so when you worked for him, you described but more recently you have suggested that that's part of an image and a brand and not reality. so there's a duality to mark one is the mark sanford that you meet? in political life that's the brand guy. that's the image that it's not unique to markets all, all of these people have exactly the same thing. it is about them. they are the brand. so you always had to be cognizant of the fact that you weren't just working for an individual person, but you are working for this its brand. what was his brand? his brand was focusing very much on limiting the size of government and balancing the budget that was for him, that was his way of connecting with the audience congressman mark sanford, republican of south carolina, is the fresh face of

this new breed. >> i've actually got the remnants of last night's dinner here get a. new why are you doing this is nasty. hundred and $50 dinner customed to if i did save the crust, but i mean, i didn't want anything to go to waste the fiscal conservative thing with mark sanford was not an act. >> he was painfully fiscally conservative and for example, there's an infamous freak out. the congressional office about him finding a discarded paper club in the trash can and he dug around in there and grabbed it back out and so you can reuse this. >> is he really making it safe? paperclips of course i remember shani san for an interview complaining about he would not buy new suit jackets that he would just wear the same clothes for years and years. >> he didn't just talk big game about being frugal. he really was a frugal man while being frugal does not

necessarily block a man from a little romance. >> mark inhabited this penny pinching sweetly curmudgeon lee character so thoroughly, i just could not imagine there were other aspects of him. >> he's mark sanford, family man. he's mark sanford, father of four boys. he's mark sanford physical conservative, but that's the distinction between being the character actor and being the person there's method acting involved in politics and there's a character they build that's real to them, but it's not real. it's not real. each one of these political figures, they're playing a character and sooner or later the fourth wall breaks july 21st, a special how would really happened when it lambda's olympic celebration turned deadly, the fbi search for answers and all the wrong places, stead of being remembered as a hero. >> he is remembered as either a victim for a guy that got away with what if he didn't do it who did how it really happened?

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replace, schedule free mobile service at safe flight.com that we thank we place a first step and reducing the 4.7 trillion dollar debt congressman sanford is halting that delivery of ice. do as congressional office. >> why do we need like can we just walk down three floors and get the calf to yourself? you can't just talk about it. i mean, you have to have action in your own office that were flat that sanford when he got elected, i could tell you exactly when i met him. we had a reception in december 7, 1994. he had just been elected to that. she has been elected to the house and we had a good conversation. the one thing that he and i share was a common philosophy about the world. you were just they taken with. this could be a really good leader. you believed in him that i believed in the issues he believed it really dislike gets into my mind, like i really i really didn't think mark was capable of doing anything slimy, not mark is too

afraid of jenny and he's all of these were like what they like college sweethearts. they'd been together for 20 years. they had four beautiful kids. she was such an integral part of his professional and personal leinz. they seemed great to me that 20 years journey together from congress to the governor's office when you're partnered with someone like that and your your food, yet relationships forged in still under fire. they're solid as a rock. you know that when you find a good one, you got to help them and you found a good one in mark sanford but more importantly, the mob, jenny sanford is a great future first lady of the state of south carolina ginny sample was invaluable to mark sanford rise. she was a smart, skillful woman, a georgetown educated wall street vice president. i don't don't think that mark sanford would have had a political career at all if it were not for jenny stanford's

help, it's not my love. i'm not driven to run campaigns, but but we worked well together jenny sanford had been a right-hand woman throughout all of mark sanford political career. she managed his congressional campaigns and she also managed his first campaign as governor, something that she has said since you really tried to get out of doing because she had forced sons, all of whom were still have school age. but she was free labor. it was somebody that he really wouldn't have to hire on on behalf of the people of the state. i wish you godspeed sure. >> marc and jenny made a great team. but it turned out there were some elements of the sanford union. very few people knew about or even suspected right before we were getting married when he said, you know, there's your priest gives menu of different vowels and he says, well, you know, i, with all due respect, i'd rather

not use a vow that uses the word faithful in it. and i said we had and there's no question. i had my own doubts about mark, but fidelity was the last thing i was worried about. >> but jenny brush the red flags aside, been with her health marks, political brand grew until it seemed unstoppable. he entered the governor's office as a sort of folk hero to south carolina voters saltine cracker of a man on a single-minded crusade to save taxpayers money when you have a $5,000,000,000 budget, it's essentially a billion out of out of balance. >> changes needed. but when he actually got to work at the state house, sanford found his passion for cutting budgets and also made him some enemies mark sanford. >> he's a republican. the legislature for years has been controlled by republicans, so they're all on the same party and extensively from the outside, you would think oh, okay. well, these guys are all gonna get together and get a lot of things done that's not really what happened when mark sanford was in the governor's mansion instead, mark sanford leinz further into character

and started slashing his fellow republicans budgets with a vengeance may 1 year he vetoed the entire budget i mean, just sent the entire budget that we never got to a budget. >> soko where there weren't dozens of budget vetoes. >> there was no democrat versus republican. it was, you know, us versus mark sanford. so he would send hundreds of vetoes back and we would just get together and all override them because it was more during one particularly volatile session in 2004, sanford kept vetoing budgets and the legislature overrode 105 of those vetoes in 90 minutes. this is a republican luntz, a republican legislature and that's i mean, that's how bad this was. >> and have that go over that morning. >> there's just like this epic freak out, the press ofs in everybody is frantically on the phone dialing and they look up, so get on the phone, find some pigs. i'm like, what get on the phone? find pigs. martin needs to pigs. he's going to

take them upstairs and do a press conference. i'm like okay. and i disliked google and you know, where to find, pigs, columbia south carolina. i'm like you have no idea, right? they drove back election than county, which is a well area outside columbia. and i'm still up on the house floor are working on legislation, trying to move the governor's agendas from other areas. and i can remember lots of people turning their heads and craning their heads and looking toward the lobby. and then somebody said, oh my god, he has pigs i love milwaukee. cnn is live from milwaukee as republican tonight behind their nominee, his vp, and their plans to take you back the white house, follow cnn for complete coverage. the republican national convention starts monday, july 15th today, and cnn, feeling from a backed up god mere lax works naturally with the water in your body to help you go for your gut and your mood will follow for eight grams of fiber and trying mirror fiber gummies at morgan

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relief products. >> we also make proactive urinary tract health products. you korea is a lifesaver today at your core.com i assume you would tipped off the tv cameras and such? >> no. no, we didn't tell anybody and telling when you just walked up with the depicts, no one is aware of what we're doing. and we just start telling everyone in the lobby that the governor's got pigs. so it just creates this mass of people now the reporter's just go in san, setup voters across south carolina, tuned in. is there a manila envelope governor seemed to reveal the one issue that could stir him to reckless passion protesting his fellow republicans, bloated pork filled budget with actual pork. the gas pollution loss, yes, day and forth one, fourth one, and the taxpayers law in a mark had one under each arm and was maybe squeezing them a little too tight and so there was a trail of pig excrement as he went up the stairs. >> he gets it down men's pants and on his shoes now let's code our boy which for a guy

who owns one coat or the house majority whip is yelling at me that we have to clean this mess up. >> i went up there with the with the spray and then the rags a little bit elbow grease and cleaned up pig duty that day. >> and then you let the page go run free. and so the page rank and free in the lobby and ran into the house annual room chamber and of course, all the lobbyists were around there. the press was there and sure enough, it was a lead story on all three local television stations. and it was a huge hit in the public was it an effective punch in the face? it was good timing because we had a primary just coming up a week later and one of the republicans who ended up losing their see was the house majority leader and he said point blank that his polling numbers flipped completely because of that pig episode. so we had a number of incumbent republicans who ended up losing the challengers. they started taking him a lot more seriously. now, it worked.

yeah. it was very effective. >> but at the same time, mark sanford was becoming a political rockstar for letting pigs loose on the capitol floor. a chance encounter was about to make a complete mess of his personal life in 2001, sanford had taken a guy's trip to oregon and they're at an outdoor dance. he mat and instantly connected first as friends with a woman who saw the man behind the brand argentinian journalist maria ballon, chap, or she was a very likable person and for a guy like mark sanford who surrounded by people who are basically beating the out of him every day over on the senate when you get this oasis of compassion it can be appealing and she's an attractive woman. she's age-appropriate. this the whole nine and all of a sudden he's in love he's got this email exchange with this woman. he prints these letters out and puts them in a file cabinet in his office at the mansion his

letters to his mistress and the ones from her to file this dumb printed them out and put them in a folder and then five i just keep coming up to the it's just so weird to me because all these politicians who worked so hard, right? and they throw it away for sex. and it's just always so crazy to me as somebody who covers politics it's so common and it's so and i just, i never truly understand it. >> the thing about a political figure that you've got to keep in mind number one is compartmentalization their ability to isolate each segment of their world as though it didn't exist. they have to be able to do that. if you meet jennie sanford and you meet berlin, they're poor opposite peep, all of a sudden, berlin

found the hole to get into the gap in his life and filled it but then he compartmentalizes and his, his method act or so he goes back to being mark sanford actor, governor without ever letting on they is having an affair to maintain his office and reputation. sanford had to hide his love for maria and continued to pretend to only long four balanced budgets in 2090 top to pork and barrel with a bigger stumps that would catapult him from south carolina local legend to the national spotlight. south carolina's republican governor has become the nation's first to reject some of the economic stimulus money. >> south carolina was still reeling from the 2008 recession when sanford was offered relief funds from president obama's economic stimulus plan if we spend all this money, we end up $700 million in the hole 24 months from now. the question is, then what people started legitimately talking about him as a presidential contender to

challenge obama in 2012, i was a white house reporter at the time. that's how it looked from where i was sitting. who sanford is emerging? to challenge obama. and it sounds like that's what you guys were thinking to write. next thing, you know, we've got the tea party and sanford is the man he had become a darling for fiscal conservatives. i met people who had moved to south carolina just kind of quietly to begin forming what was going to be potentially a national level bid for him? >> if mark sanford is a stock like in spring of 2009, your buy it, right? anybody who knows anything about politics or about republican politics, you're buying mark sanford stock in spring of 2009 then father's day weekend of 2000 ios when everything started to fall apart because the governor disappeared it was honestly one of the most bizarre things i

have covered in 20 years of journalism he left he was gone from the state and didn't leave anybody else in charge. it seemed totally out of character, but his constituents would soon learn that they did not know the real mark sanford at all? get back i voted buttons. i drag my remote kid. >> why no donkeys or elephants stands leaving alla thing. >> so cell boy, it's like your generation has evolved hash traditional political symbols. and there's room for everyone, kind of like my podcast on cnn. yeah, plus cans, puke rainbows, white, taken okay yeah we got orders coming in. starting a business is never easy, but star name, eight months pregnant that's a different story. i couldn't slow down. we were starting a business from the ground up. people were

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free text. now i'm rafael romo, the georgia state capitol in atlanta. this is cnn was a thursday. so i had a scheduled meeting with him in the morning

except he didn't show up for the meeting i remember i was standing outside the state house and marty say for told me personally that he was going to be gone for a few days. i'm i going to be able to reach on yourself and i'm probably not. all right. failing comes up, joel, handle it. okay? but as the weekend came and went, no one had heard from mark sanford, father's day weekend, so i'm with my children and my family and they get the work the next day. on monday. and there's sort of these rumblings of you know, we know were marquez meanwhile, i've been calling him trying to get a hold of them and i couldn't get him on the phone. all of a sudden this appalachian trail story comes up. where did it come from? the appalachian trail thin. he planted that with a member of our staff, but even an eccentric guy like mark sanford would spend father's day with his four sons whom he legitimately adores. >> right. did you talk to jenny sanford? she didn't know where

he was and he wasn't for father's day and the last thing she said to me is he's your problem now shanna from there, the de got worse for scott because one of stanford's enemies in the state senate was starting to ask questions i get a call from someone with sled state law enforcement division, which is the governor security detail from center node's is asking questions about stanford's whereabouts jk knots, he single-handedly blocked tattoos, becoming legal in south carolina because it god wanted you to have a tattoo, he to put it on your body himself. >> i mean, he he is that guy jake nods. he was one of the top foils of governor mark sanford, they absolutely did not get along every day is another embarrassment. if something else is popping up, it started out and he just simply took a vehicle and was missing jake was trying to stir

up this idea that nobody had sled knows where he is, nobody knows where the governor is. >> he didn't tell him about where he's going. he's missing i know exactly where he is. he's hiking the state newspaper was tipped off by senator jake knots when we started calling and asking, where's the governor first, they were like, well, why do you want to know? >> well, because he's the governor then of course, you're going get the media's attention right? when you don't answer, where a governor is, there was a mystery this morning's run in the whereabouts or south carolina governor mark sanford mystery is on folding surrounding the whereabouts of south carolina's governor reportedly, even his wife didn't know where he went and he wasn't even around for father's day, the various simple solution that is saying is sanford call back home, come back home to people south carolina water, know where you add communicate dmz called all

170 members, i believe of the state house. i'll never forget i got a message from tmz and the the guy on the other hand, he was just like do you know where the governor is? and i was like, i do not any hung up. and so then i was like something something's going on at this point. i'm being bombarded from everywhere. i've got news trucks all around the state house right now because where is the governor? i should know. i don't know so what did you do? i put the hiking the appalachian trail story out because i've got members of my staff confirming it mystery is actually growing deeper south carolina governor mark sanford vanished last thursday well yesterday, because office say he wasn't hiding. >> he was hiking. >> his office said the governor had gone hiking along the 2,200 mile long appalachian trail wouldn't specify where i can only assume he has been sustaining himself by boring wild game to collapsing at his feet and here's where i must make my confession the sanford

story breaks and a white house correspondent for abc news, and i know mark, i've known him for a decade at this point i completely by the appalachian trail thing and then good morning america asks me to we need to get the stanford interview. >> it's missing where he is and they send me a copy of the story that nbc or msnbc had done in which he's like basically talking about how shady and weird it is that the governor's disappeared. i've forwarded it to maybe to joel. sorry, i forgot who i send it to, but i send it to somebody goes and said something like i'm pretty slimy stuff, like alluding to the fact that like don't give the interviewer to nbc or the today show, give it to abc news. and good morning america, because nbc, whatever they're casting aspersions and then of course, way after the truth of stanford's escapades had come out my email was released and a freedom of information act request. i called the reporter and an

executive at nbc and apologize. it was to be clear, inexcusable. and beyond that, i'd been wrong wrong about this guy who i thought had been a devoted dad and husband, wrong wrong. wrong. lesson burned that was just embarrassing and i also felt dumb for just automatically believing the best possible scenario when it came to a politician, you, you've always been on the reporting side of things. welcome to the hell we all have a little by our 144 of mark sanford disappearance pretty much everyone who knew mark sanford was starting to question how much we really knew him as the day goes on tuesday, little things, little bits of information start coming out of that. >> maybe kinda say we learned that his last cell phone peeing was in atlanta some googling well, there's an appalachian trail trailhead just north of atlanta. we find out later, the

de tuesday that his car is parked at the airport surely there's not something else at play here. you're saying he's over the appalachian trail, weird the state had some information that led us to believe something different. >> so about a year before mark sanford mysteriously disappeared from the state, we had gotten an email the subjects that said this is your governor that appear to be back-and-forth emails between mark sanford and a woman in argentina but they could not be proven to be legitimate. until the governor disappeared and here is an actual excerpt from one of mark's many emails two ballon i could digress and say, you have the ability to give magnificent, gentle kisses or that i love your tan lines, are that i love the curve of your

hips the erotic beauty of you holding yourself or two magnificent parts of yourself. >> and the faded glow of the night, slight but hey, that would be going into sexual details. so junior, i'm saying it's sort of starts swirl lane at that point we didn't know but we hoped that we had put everything together correctly and he was going to be getting off of a flight from argentina they're in the atlantic airport and there was only one flight coming in from argentina that morning remember, being at the atlanta airport, it's 6:00 a.m. that morning and one of the last people off the escalator is mark sanford. and i i mean, i jump pick up my digital cameras just could not believe he was standing near the atlanta so now the question

was, would sanford actually come clean? we must break the will of our enemy and end this war the crown will pursue that chain any cost i did not think they would be so eager to die he was seen me a ruler and symbols of authority. >> i'm not doing but the shield and the sword house of the dragon streaming exclusively on max you know, if your cash back and you could earn on everything which is one car chase freedom unlimited. so if you're off the racket or grabbed fracking your cash back in, cash back on flap jacks, baby back for toc goals at the taco shack. >> i'm working on my six pack switch to a king suite. >> silent retreat, silent retreat answers this kids. all

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the hartsfield-jackson international airport in atlanta i'm standing with my camera. >> my notepad i've thought running up to them and i like it um we thought your hiking the appalachian trail doing getting off a plane from argentina. any savoy? >> i was going to hike the appalachian trail, but i had a last minute change in plans. >> would would you like to talk about it yes, sir. yeah. yes, i would. he told me the story about the pressures public life. and he just needed to get away, right? and he wanted to take this trip. well where did you say do you have friends they're who did you visit with? he told me he was alone and i think it started dawning on him that i knew more than i

was letting on and he he got up and left and then i'm grabbing for myself phone and calling my editor and yelling, oh my god you're not going to report knowing it was only a matter of hours before gina filed her story. mark sanford race back to the capital to get ahead of it all with now infamous press conference, i was there and i can't recall a time being more squished in in what is a very large atrium in the middle of the south carolina state house let me help me here. >> how are we going to i couldn't get i couldn't talk to the guy. i had no idea what a messy was which gina smith?

not here. okay so i'm standing there and i'm all camera and i'm watching this fiasco so the bottom line is this. >> i i've been unfaithful to my wife i developed a relationship with a what started as a dear, dear friend from argentina he walked through this, experience and his relationship with this woman and how he feels about this woman. it began very innocently as i suspect many of these things do in just a casual email back-and-forth in advice on one's life there and advice here. >> but here recently of this last year, it developed into something much more than that is explanation of where he was was so deeply narcissistic so deeply about himself and his feelings that is a suspected continual process all through

life of getting one's heart right in light and so i would never stand before you as one who just says, i'm really right with regard to my heart on all things but what i would say is i'm committed to try and get my heart right because i found love. >> i'm sorry. i'm sorry. i lit the entire building on fire. but if found luck guys be happy for me yeah. >> i hurt my wife. i hurt my boys. i heard friends like tom davis i heard a lot of different folks and all i can say that i apologize. >> what was your reaction? because he i mean, he's he spoke from the heart. you could say it's the best thing i can say about it. i started with him in 1996, were 13 years later, and i'm just watching my entire the career, everything that i had built up for the last 13 years just fall into a flaming pile of pig. basically, yes he effectuate at

the escape. >> but then he didn't do the cover up well at all if mark would have had any friends say mark is kind of a loner mart would elute them in. i mean what would have happened i think is only friend was probably jenny. >> it turned out she had discovered mark secrets ahead of the press and no, she would not be standing by her man for the photographers to ginni anybody who is observed her over the last 20 years, my life knows how closely she has stood by my side it was very surreal and for the part of a lot of the reporters who came in from out of town. >> they're like is it always like this? is it is there always this kind of weird stuff that's happening and i mean, the answer is yes. but this was definitely a different level and it took us a while to figure out exactly what we had just gone through but it all might have gone away quickly

because mark sanford new cycle was interrupted by perhaps an act of god, the la times has reporting the pop star michael jackson has died the entire national media apparatus turn their focus from mark sanford over to remembering michael jackson all the governor has to do now is keep his head down not say anything, and the whole thing will blow but then mark held basically a almost two day interview with members of the associated press on the record in which he called bolin his soulmate de another interview. >> surely it couldn't be that bad, right the whole lot more than simple affair to love story across leinz i shouldn't have crossed with a great man remember there was an older couples into are right? >> they could see as far yeah, it was a lot.

>> i think there was in mark the sense of trying as hard as he could to explain to people some very complex things that he was feeling when you compare it to edwards or it was spitzer, somebody had gone to a crisis management expert and say, okay, this is the way you go about explaining things in a way where you can salvage your career or a way you can position yourself to come back mark didn't do any of that. >> and that might just be what saved him we're here to get your side of the story. this guy who was a crusader against human sex trafficking is actually a customer that someone at the white house blow cover of a cia operative. this is horrifying. she's still endanger the staff said he was hiking the appalachian trail when did you realize you might actually be going to prison? from the beginning you can't write this stuff. united states of scandal with jake tapper. now streaming on max this is

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montgomery in tokyo and this is cnn in the wake of the scandal, jenny left mark south carolina's first lady, so she's filing for divorce. there's not run for three on america. >> and there were calls for his resignation across the state mark sanford said no because he felt his could still effectively govern critics then called for stanford's impeachment. >> they opened an ethics investigation in the hopes of finding that is tripped. argentina contained criminal use of taxpayer dollars i was on the judiciary committee is 22, 23 23-years-old at the time and i voted to impeach mark sanford and i shouldn't have when i think about it and look back at it. >> i don't think it rose to the level of impeach ability the majority of the state senate at the time saw it that way too, because nothing mark sanford spent on that trip crossed over into criminal territory after he paid a small fine and reimburse the state the hearings were dropped now, he just needed to win back the

public. he embarked on what i remember terming in a story at one point and apology tour. and he did that for months i am compelled to say that i'm sorry, one more time for the situation that i created, the reality is none of us are perfect. >> now, moving forward, i think the people south carolina raging mark sanford served out his full two terms as governor. >> the maximum allowed by south carolina law in 2012, we got engaged to his soulmates, maria berlin's chap and then the following year, he ran again and won his old congressional seat back once left for dead in the political wilderness, mark sanford blazed a comeback trail that will take him all the way to washington. i just want to acknowledge a a god, not just effective cancers, but third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth chances because that is a reality of our shared humanity. >> i think that we've learned that voters can be really forgiving and we love to watch

the fall. >> but man, we really love a good come back, right? thank marx, re-entry into politics wasn't stumble free in 2014, he broke up with maria via a 2,300 word post on facebook but, after all that it was in 2018 that sanford finally faced if you he could not bounce back from when he denounced trumpism as bad for the republican party trump clapped back in a tweet donald trump endorsed stanford's opponent in the gop primary race and for the first time in his entire political life sanford lost sanford lost his primary race because to a degree, he stood up to donald trump to a degree. >> now, if you need that narrative, it's fine. i don't if you don't think it's true, telling me what i think it's. >> he doesn't have a campaign manager. he doesn't have campaign staff he has a campaign account and doesn't spend it the guy spent $300,000 on ads and the night he was declared the loser in a

republican primary, he had one-and-a-half million dollars in his bank account. he took a dive. why he needed the universe to make a decision for me was unhappy and congress christ knows, i watched a be unhappy and congress, but he can't, he can't can't quit things. let's go back to 2009 for a second. okay. he couldn't quit his marriage. so what does he do? he gives her the clue by disappearing for five days. so that becomes an international scandal. >> from the outside, the mark sanford scandal was an absurd comedy. but for insiders such as scott or me, if i'm being honest it was a really hard lesson. mark sanford seemed like the rare politician who is exactly what you saw on the podium? and that's because who he seemed to be was based on some real truths but the persona was just one facet of who he was packaged up in made clean and comprehensive ball for the american public the big surprise was that even after mark sanford is brand had dissolved, so spectacularly, the south carolina public embraced him even more

authenticity trumping perfection ironically, lesson harnessed by his main detract or the 45th president who took an aggressive brand of filter free politics all the way to the white house. i could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters. >> okay. it's like i still occasionally talk to mark who declined to participate in this documentary. i think because of how guilty he feels about what this all did to his four sons. he says he's working hard on those relationships and maybe i'm a fool, but i believe them scandals the capitate people scandals take people completely out the game and mark sanford, that didn't happen tomorrow mark didn't get impeached. he finished his term and he actually won another race for the united states congress by being honest to himself, being honest to his conservative political values, and being