could have been more vigilant on that. in retrospect ooh. >> close, but no cigar. whether or not rod trusted the wrong people, he set them loose on illinois because they brought him the most money. whether the rules on political fundraising are flimsy guardrails at best, you can still drive between the lines. so rod's tale is a cautionary one. a camera grabbing, over-the-top example of how bribery, extortion and graft easily sneak into our political system behind ambition and enormous egos. and if politicians or the public feel the same way he does, then another rod blagojevich is just around the corner. >> i didn't break a law, crossed the line or take a penny. okay, but i never said i wasn't an idiot thank you very much. thank you very much.

>> in 2009, south carolina governor mark sanford was a republican rock star. 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 threw his office into chaos and turned up a secret love affair and a bizarre set of lies that coined the phrase to 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 counterintuitively, when the world was crashing down around him, baring it all might have been the savviest political move of mark sanford's career.

>> it's monday night. do you know where your governor is? that's what the citizens of south carolina are wondering. where in the world is our governor? a mystery tonight in south carolina. the state's governor, mark sanford, disappeared for 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 in south carolina. get into 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 grew. >> many in south carolina don't know where he is. >> not even his wife. it's 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 headline in today's local paper says sanford awol. who's in charge? >> it was a complete dereliction of duty. imagine if there was a mass shooting or a hurricane or, you know, anything. >> i think all of us are concerned. we're worried about where he might be. >> speculation was rampant. some people thought he was dead. a fringe few thought he'd been abducted by aliens. it was only after he'd been gone for nearly a week that sanford's staff finally offered an explanation of where he was. >> his staff said he was hiking the appalachian trail. >> tonight we find out this e-mail 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 maine. >> the governor is hiking the appalachian trail. why would that be such a big secret? >> a reporter with the state newspaper had gotten a tip that

mark sanford never went anywhere near the appalachian trail. it 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. >> so the bottom line is this i. i've been unfaithful to my wife. i developed a relationship with a dear, dear friend. >> turned out he was a man in love his cover is now blown. >> mark sanford is not, after all, hiking by himself on the appalachian trail. >> hiking the appalachian trail, which then instantly entered the lexicon as a euphemism for an affair. >> he 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 the appalachian trail. >> where have you been, honey? what's that? >> lipstick. i was hiking the appalachian trail. >> it was just. it was such a huge contribution to the english language. >> so the guy had an affair and 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 jenny 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 seemed totally believable. so when folks began speculating about cd possibilities, i wrongly wrote it off as the worst kind of sensationalist journalism. and when it was proven true, i felt dumb. i

felt duped for naively 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's closest aide, 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 right? yes. you know, 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, i mean, 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 him? >> you know, 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. yeah. which, by the way, is why i've never done an interview about this ever in my life. and until

today. but, you know, i could just never imagine him like he had no 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's got a mistress. >> you and i are both thinking that it was actually on the appalachian trail. is is good. i mean, it made me feel better. i'm like, yeah, that makes sense. he's a weirdo. maybe you think we're being dramatic or 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 personas in the game. and this was the guy we thought we knew. >> time magazine named you one of the five most boring governors in america. did that sting? >> what you learn in politics is that there are 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 and what what what we promise to voters in the first place? and then you can live with that and sort of leave it alone with the other 49%, because you ain't going to please everybody.

>> you are incredibly boring i was i was actually there when that was filmed. >> and it was like, yeah, you were boring. you were like manila envelopes stapled to a brown wall. boring. yeah, yeah, that's completely accurate. which is again, why we were just, like, completely shocked that it was like this. very like, you know, passionate, emotional affair with this woman, you know, on the other side of the continent, it was just completely out of character. or for what? like 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's 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 him by saying he's willing to say what he believes and act accordingly

and live with the consequences. 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 and it's not unique to mark. it's, you know, all all of these people have exactly the same thing. you know, it is about them. they are the brand. so you always have to be cognizant of the fact that you weren't just working for an individual person, but you are working for this 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 actually got the remnants of last night's dinner here. >> this is the new washington. this is not the $150 dinner that we're accustomed to. i did save the crust. >> 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. for example, there is an infamous freak out in the congressional office about him finding a discarded paperclip in the trash can. and he dug around in there and grabbed it back out and said, you can reuse this. >> is he really making you save paperclips? >> of course i remember jenny sanford in 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 a big game about being frugal. he really was a frugal man and while being frugal does not necessarily block a man from a little romance, mark inhabited this penny pinching, sweetly curmudgeonly character so thoroughly i just could not imagine. >> there were other aspects of him. >> you know, he's mark sanford, family man. he's mark

sanford, father of four boys. he's mark sanford, fiscal conservative. 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 welcome to times square. >> that's night of my life. >> cheers. that was so embarrassing. >> we are joined by john mayer. we are at a cat bar. neil patrick harris. >> out. oh, my gosh. that's perfect. >> tv new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn. streaming live on max. okay, everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced

nutrition for strength and energy. >> ensure with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health and ensure complete with 30g of protein. >> advil liquid gels are faster and stronger than tylenol rapid release gels, also from advil. advil. targeted relief the only topical with four powerful pain fighting ingredients that start working on contact and lasts up to eight hours. >> it's the most wonderful time with verizon. >> trade in any phone, any condition. it's your last chance to get iphone 16 pro on us and ipad and apple watch series ten all three on us. only on verizon these days. >> $20 won't get you far, but at red lobster, you're a big shrimp and baby, it's shrimp your way. choose three flavors for $20, like crispy dragon shrimp. get to big shrimp in today only at red lobster. >> now's the time to go back in time and shine a light on

the family journey that led to you. detailed dna results, inspiring family history, memberships. now's the time to save at ancestry. >> from creating memories. to finding the perfect gift. let us make this holiday season a little easier. right now. save up to $60 on select a.s. battery sets. happy holidays from steel yes, the ups store knows you want that special something to be there when you can't. >> she sent candles we'll make sure of it. we're the packet ship. it guarantee. it's store to helping you give the gifts. the love story. we're here to

make the holidays happy. we're the one. stop right around the corner. be unstoppable. every way you holiday store. visit the ups store.com/packing and get 20% off packing today at harbor freight. >> we design and test our own tools and sell them directly to you. no middlemen, just quality tools you can trust. at prices you'll love. whatever you do, do it for less. at harbor freight everyone's running to subway for three. >> all new spicy footlongs. wait. subway did what? that's right. they're bringing the heat with creamy sriracha, jalapenos and all new ghost pepper bread. but hurry! these subs are only here for a limited time. when a tough car finds you on the go, it would be silly. >> hey, trying to robert hur soft pack with the power of robitussin and every bite easy to take cough relief anywhere. chew on relief. chew on a doesn't as a first step in

reducing the $4.7 trillion debt, congressman sanford is halting the delivery of ice to his congressional office. >> why do we need ice? why can't we just walk down three floors and get to the cafeteria ourselves? you can't just talk about it. i mean, you have to have actions in your own office that reflect that. >> sanford, when he got elected, i could tell you exactly when i met him. we had a reception on december 7th, 1994. >> he had just been elected to the house. >> he had just 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 like, taken with, like, this could be a really good leader. you believed in him, that i believed in the issues he believed in. >> yeah. >> it really just, like, gets into my mind. like it really. i really didn't think mark was capable of doing anything slimy. >> like mark. yeah, he's too afraid of jenny, and he's, you know, all of these. and they were like, weren't 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 lives. they seemed

great to me that 20 year journey together, you know, from congress to the governor's office, when you're partnered with someone like that and you're you're that relationship is forged in steel, 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 mom, jenny sanford, the great future first lady of the state of south carolina. >> jenny sanford, was invaluable to mark sanford's rise. she was a smart skillful woman, a georgetown educated wall street vice president. i don't think that mark sanford would have had a political career at all if it were not for jenny sanford'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's political

career. >> she managed his congressional campaigns, and she also managed his first campaign as governor, something that she has said since she really tried to get out of doing because she had four sons, all of whom were still of school age. but she was free labor, and it was somebody that he really wouldn't have to to hire on, on behalf of the people of the state. >> i wish you godspeed. thank you. >> thank you. >> sure. mark 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, you know, there's your priest gives you a menu of different vows, and he says, well, you know, i with all due respect, i'd rather not use a vowel that uses the word faithful in it. >> and i said, well, you got to be kidding me. and there's no question i had my own doubts about mark. but fidelity was the last thing i was worried about. >> but jenny brushed the red flags aside, and with her help, mark's political brand grew

until it seemed unstoppable. he entered the governor's office as a sort of folk hero to south carolina voters, a saltine cracker of a man on a single minded crusade to save taxpayers money. >> when you have a $5 billion budget, that's essentially $1 billion out of out of balance. change is needed. >> but when he actually got to work at the statehouse, sanford found his passion for cutting budgets had also made him some enemies. >> mark sanford, he's a republican. the legislature for years has been controlled by republicans, so they're all in the same party. and ostensibly from the outside, you would think, oh, okay, well, these guys are all going to 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 of mark sanford leaned further into character and started slashing his fellow republicans budgets with a vengeance. >> i mean, one year he vetoed the entire budget. >> i mean, just sent the entire budget back. we never got to a budget cycle 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 override them because it was mark, 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 legislature, a republican legislature. and that's i mean, that's how bad this was. >> and how did that go over? >> uh that morning, there's just like this epic freak out in the press office and everybody is frantically on the phone dialing, and they look up and say, get on the phone, find some pigs. >> i'm like, what? uh, get on the phone, find pigs. mark needs two pigs. he's going to take them upstairs and do a press conference. i'm like, okay. and i'm just like, googling, you know, where to find pigs. columbia, south carolina i'm like, i have no idea. right? >> they drove out to lexington county, which is a rural area

outside of columbia, and i'm still up on the house floor working on legislation, trying to, you know, move the governor's agenda in some 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 can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. never too much new year's day on cnn. >> everyone's running to subway for three. all new spicy footlongs. wait, subway did what? that's right. they're bringing the heat with cream of sriracha, jalapenos and all new ghost pepper bread. but hurry, these subs are only here for a limited time. >> nothing dims my light like a migraine. with nurtec odt, i found relief nurtec odt can provide relief in two hours, which can last up to two days when used for the acute treatment of migraine with or

without aura in adults. to those with migraine, i see you don't take if allergic to nurtec odt, allergic reactions can occur even days after use like trouble breathing and rash. >> get help if you have trouble breathing. swelling of the face, mouth, tongue, or throat. common side effect is nausea. >> it's time we all shine. >> talk to a doctor to see if nurtec is right for you. >> at fisher investments, we may look like other money managers, but we're different. how so? we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in our client's best interests so we don't sell any commission based products. >> then how do you make money? >> we have a simple management fee structured so we do better when our clients do better. >> your clients really come first then, huh? >> yes. we make them a top priority by getting to know their finances, family, health, lifestyle and more. wow. >> maybe we are different. >> at fisher investments, we're clearly different. >> lowe's knows the best holiday tradition is taking your tradition to the next level. >> so if you find a lower price on the things you want need, we'll match it. plus, with my lowe's rewards, you can earn points when you shop to make

the holidays even more sweet. lowe's knows how to help you holiday. >> sometimes it takes a different approach to see the possibilities all around you. at capella university, you'll learn the advanced skills you need to face the nursing challenges of today and tomorrow details. >> make the holidays. get 2.99% apr plus. eligible owners can your business needs a network it can count on... even during the unexpected. power's out! -power's out! power's out! comcast business has got you covered, with wifi backup to help keep you up and running. wifi's up. let's power on! let's power on! -let's power on! it's from the company with 99.9% network reliability.

let's power on! power on with the leader in connectivity. get wifi backup for your business, or get started with comcast business internet. and for a limited time, get an $800 holiday bonus. call today. absolutely free. text l o v e to 321321. >> today i'm rahel solomon in new york and this is cnn. >> closed captioning brought to you by book.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 808 two one 4000. >> i assume you had tipped off

the tv cameras and such. >> no, no, we didn't tell anybody. >> you didn't tell anyone? you just walked up with the pigs. >> no one's 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 and all the reporters just go and set up voters across south carolina, tuned in as their manila envelope governor seemed to reveal the one issue that could stir him to reckless passion. >> protecting his fellow republicans. bloated, pork filled budget with actual pork. >> the constitution lost yesterday, and pork won. i think pork won and the taxpayers lost. >> you know, 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 to his pants and on his shoes and on his coat. oh, boy. which for a guy who owns one coat. yeah. 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 the rags, a little bit of elbow grease and,

uh, cleaned up pig dookie that day. >> and then we let the pigs go run free. and so the pigs ran free in the lobby and ran into the house. annual room, chamber, and and of course, all the lobbyists were around there. the press was there. and sure enough, it was the 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 seat 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, though. it worked. yeah, it was very effective. >> but at the same time, mark sanford was becoming a political rock star 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 guys trip to uruguay, and there, at an outdoor dance, he met and instantly connected, first as friends with a woman who saw the man behind the brand. argentinian journalist maria belén chapur. >> she was a very likable person, and for a guy like mark sanford, who's surrounded by people who are basically beating the out of him every day, you know, over in the senate, when you get this oasis of compassion, it can be appealing. and she's an attractive woman. she's age appropriate. it's 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. >> and they're in a file. this printed them out and put them in a folder and then file them away.

>> i just keep coming up to the eye. it's just so weird to me because all these politicians who work 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 dumb. 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 jenny sanford and you meet berlin, they're polar opposite people. all of a sudden, berlin found the hole to get into the gap in his life and filled it. but then he compartmentalizes and he's this method actor. so he goes back to being mark sanford. you know, actor, governor without ever letting

on that he's having an affair. yeah. >> to maintain his office and reputation, sanford had to hide his love for maria and continue to pretend to only long for balanced budgets. in 2009, he topped pork and barrel with a bigger stunt 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. and the question is, and 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. oh, sanford's emerging to challenge obama, and it sounds like that's what you guys were

thinking, too, right? >> next thing you know, we've got the tea party in 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. >> you know, if mark sanford is a stock like in spring of 2009, you're buying, right? anybody who knows anything about politics or about republican politics, you're buying mark sanford's stock in spring of 2009. then a father's day weekend of 2009 was 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 10,000 years before the birth of paul atreides, we founded a sisterhood harkonnen. >> you are the strongest among us without spice, the great houses would feed me to the world the troubles are far greater than just arrakis let us rid the imperium of these witches forever stop dune prophecy streaming exclusively on max oh! >> man, you take me by the hand. >> i feel better. again. >> oh, i feel better now. >> introducing new moroccan gel. the first fda cleared ed treatment available without a prescription. a raqqa gel is clinically proven to work

within ten minutes, so you and your partner can experience the heights of intimacy. new moroccan treatment gel. >> dupixent helps people with asthma breathe better in as little as two weeks. so this is better. that two dupixent is an add on treatment for specific types of moderate to severe asthma. it works with your asthma medicine to help improve lung function. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems and doesn't replace a rescue inhaler. it's proven to help prevent asthma attacks. severe allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for face, mouth, tongue or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling, or numbness in limbs. tell your doctor if new or worsening joint aches and pain or a parasitic

infection. don't change or stop steroid, asthma or other treatments without talking to your doctor. when you can get more out of your lungs, you can do more with less asthma. and isn't that better? ask your doctor about dupixent, the most prescribed biologic in asthma and now approved as an add on treatment for adults with copd that is not well controlled and with a specific marker of inflammation. oh, what a good time we will have you can make time we will have you can make it happen. ♪we can secure our world.♪ ♪when you choose your passwords♪ ♪make them strong.♪ ♪use a password manager to help you along.♪ learn more at cisa.gov/secureourworld ♪that's how we can secure our world!♪

♪we can secure our world.♪ ♪when it's time to update an app,♪ ♪don't you hesitate, do it asap.♪ learn more at cisa.gov/secureourworld ♪that's how we can secure our world!♪ >> go to deal dash dot com right now and see how much you can save. >> all the best. all the worst 2020 for thursday, december 26th at 11 on cnn. >> it 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 mark sanford told me personally that he was going to be gone for a few days.

>> am i going to be able to reach you on your cell? probably not. all right. if anything comes up, i'll 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 i get to work the next day on monday. and there's sort of these rumblings of, you know do we know where mark is? meanwhile, i'd been calling him, trying to get ahold of him, 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 thing. >> 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 home for father's day. and the last thing she said to me is, he's your problem now she hung up. >> from there, the day got worse for scott because one of

sanford's enemies in the state senate was starting to ask questions. >> i get a call from someone with sled, a state law enforcement division, which is the governor's security detail. senator knotts is asking questions about sanford's whereabouts. jackie knotts. he single handedly blocked tattoos becoming legal in south carolina because if god had wanted you to have a tattoo, he'd have put it on your body himself. i mean, he is that guy. >> jake knotts, he was one of the top foils of governor mark sanford. they absolutely did not get along. >> every day is another embarrassment with something else that's popping up. >> it started out that 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 anybody where he was going. he's missing. i know exactly where he is. he's hiking the state newspaper was

tipped off by senator jake knotts. >> when we started calling and asking, where's the governor? you know, at first they were like, well, why do you want to know? well, because he's the governor. then, of course, you're going to get the media's attention, right? when you don't answer where a governor is. >> there is a mystery this morning surrounding the whereabouts of south carolina governor mark sanford. >> the mystery is unfolding 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 very simple solution to this thing is governor sanford call back home. come back home to the people of south carolina. want to know where you're at? communicate. >> tmz 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 end. he was just like, do you know where the governor is? and i was like, i do not. and he hung up. and so then i was like, all right, 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. >> and so what did you do? >> i put the hiking, the appalachian trail story out because, you know, i've got members of my staff confirming it. >> the mystery is actually growing deeper. south carolina governor mark sanford vanished last thursday. well, yesterday, his office say he wasn't hiding. he was hiking. >> his office said the governor had gone hiking along the 2200 mile long appalachian trail, but wouldn't specify where. >> i can only assume he has been sustaining himself by boring, wild game into collapsing at his feet. >> and here's where i must make my confession. the sanford's story breaks. i'm a white house correspondent for abc news, and i know mark. i've known him for a decade at this point. i completely buy the

appalachian trail thing. and then good morning america asks me to. we need to get the sanford interview. it's a mystery 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 has disappeared. i forwarded it to maybe to joel sawyer. i forget who i sent it to, but i sent it to somebody with joel and said something like, pretty slimy stuff, like alluding to the fact that like, don't give the interview 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 sanford's escapades had come out, my email was released in a freedom of information act request. i called the reporter and an executive at nbc and apologized. 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 learned. that was just embarrassing. and i also felt um dumb for just automatically believing the best possible scenario when it came to a politician. >> you've always been on the reporting side of things. welcome to the hell. we all had to live in by our 144 of mark sanford's 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 that made me kind of say, huh? we learned that his last cell phone ping was in atlanta. so i'm googling. well, there's an appalachian trail trailhead, you know, just north of atlanta. we find out late in the day tuesday that his car is parked at the airport. surely there's not something else at play here. >> you're saying he's over here at the appalachian trail? we at 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 subject said, that said, this is your governor. that appeared 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 to belen. >> i could digress and say, you have the ability to give magnificent, gentle kisses, or that i love your tan lines, or that i love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself, or two magnificent parts of yourself in the faded glow of the night's light. but hey, that would be going into sexual

details. >> so do you know what i'm saying? it sort of starts swirling 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 there in the atlanta airport. and there was only one flight coming in from argentina that morning i remember being at the atlanta airport at 6 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 camera. just could not believe he was standing there in the atlanta airport. >> so now the question was, would sanford actually come clean andy anderson, take a seat. >> look at this. >> you're wet, disheveled.

>> there's debris hitting you. >> why do you have that on your phone? >> i watch it all the time. hey, listen, we need to be ready for new year's eve. there could be an ice storm or a hurricane and obviously, confetti maybe you are ready. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn and streaming live on max. >> this is not a drill. subway dropped the price on all their subs 20% off any sub, any size. >> subway did what any sub yep. >> for a limited time you get 20% off when you order in the app. hurry and get this deal before it's gone. >> an alternative to pills. voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source. voltaren the joy of movement. >> when my doctor gave me breztri for my copd, i noticed things changed. breztri gave me

better breathing. starting within five minutes. it also reduced flare ups. >> breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. it is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. don't take breztri more than prescribed breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened. breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. >> ask your doctor about breztri. >> when i was younger, my calling was to play football. but as i grew older, i realized life isn't about how many people you can knock down. it's about how many people you can lift up. at ram, our calling is to build game changing trucks. so when you find your calling, nothing can stop you from answering it right now, during the ram wrap up the year sales event, get $5,000 total cash allowance on the purchase of most 2025 ram 1500 trucks. >> hurry to your local ram dealer today. >> i brought in ensure max protein with 30g of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks. here,

i'll take that. >> ensure. max protein 30g protein, one gram of sugar and a protein blend to feed muscles up to seven hours. >> this holiday season. kevin catherine. all aboard the freedom unlimited. >> kevin. kevin. kevin. >> kevin and kevin. i mean mcauley. take a very special trip to the mall where anything. >> and your little kid is jim gash. >> massad boulos. really? >> yeah. anything is cash packable? >> i'm sorry. >> tis the season to cash back with chase freedom unlimited. >> how do you cash back? chase, make more of what's yours. >> lowe's knows the perfect gifts. don't have to stretch your budget. that's why we offer a free select tool. when you buy select tools and batteries from our top brands. so perfecting the holidays. >> oh you're good is easier than ever. >> lowe's knows how to help you holiday. >> some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking allstate first. >> okay, let's get going. >> can everybody see that like,

you know, to check your desktop first before sharing your screen oh, that is not the, uh oh no no no no no no. how that got in there. no. that, uh. >> yeah. checking first is smart. >> okay. uh, everybody get out. >> so check allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. you're in good hands with allstate this holiday season. >> find the perfect gift at cnn. underscore from the latest fashion to expert approved tech to the best beauty finds. discover it all at underscore. com after being mia for days, the appalachian trail hiking governor finally turned up at the hartsfield international airport in atlanta. >> so i'm standing with my camera and my notepad. i went running up to him, and i'm like, you know, governor, um,

we thought you were hiking the appalachian trail. you know, what are you doing? getting off a plane from argentina. and he said, well, you know, i, 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? and i said, well, yes, sir, yes, i would. he told me the story about the pressures of 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 there? 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 my cell phone and calling

my editor and yelling, oh, my god, you're not going to believe what just happened. >> i just found mark sanford in the airport knowing it was only a matter of hours before gina filed her story. >> mark sanford raced back to the capitol to get ahead of it all with a 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 statehouse. >> someone help me here. how are we going to do this? >> i couldn't get i couldn't talk to the guy. i had no idea what a mess he was. >> um uh i see, where's gina smith? >> not here, not here. >> okay, so i'm standing there and i'm off camera, and i'm watching this fiasco. >> so the bottom line is this

i, um, i've been unfaithful to my wife. i developed a relationship with. a, uh. what started as a dear, dear friend from argentina. >> he walks through this, this 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 e-mail back and forth in advice on one's life there and advice here uh, but here recently, over this last year, it developed into something much more than that. >> his explanation of where he was was so deeply narcissistic, so deeply about himself and his feelings. >> that is a, i suspect, a continual process all through life of getting one's heart right in life. and so i would never stand before you as one who just says, yo, i'm completely right with regard to my heart on all things. but what i would say is i'm committed to trying to get my

heart right because i found love. >> i'm sorry. you know? i'm sorry. i lit the entire building on fire. but i found love. guys, be happy for me. i mean, what the. >> yeah, i hurt my wife. i hurt my boys. i hurt friends like tom davis. i heard a lot of different folks um and all i can say is that i apologize. >> what was your reaction? because he. i mean, he he spoke from the heart. you could say. i mean, i you know, it's the best thing i can say about it. >> i started with him in 1996. we were 13 years later, and i'm just watching my entire career, everything that i had built up for the last 13 years just fall into a flaming pile of pig basically. yes. >> he effectuated the escape, but then he didn't do the cover up well at all. if mark would have had any friends. see, mark is kind of a loner. mark would have looped them in. i mean, what would have

happened? i think his only friend was probably jenny. >> it turned out she had discovered mark's secrets ahead of the press. and no, she would not be standing by her man for the photographers to jenny, anybody who has observed her over the last 20 years of 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 all just gone through but it all might have gone away quickly because mark sanford's news cycle was interrupted by perhaps an act of god. >> the l.a. times is reporting that pop star michael jackson has died. >> the entire national media

apparatus turned their focus from mark sanford over to remembering michael jackson. >> oh, the governor has to do now is keep his head down, not say anything. >> and the whole thing will blow over. >> but then mark held a basically a almost two day interview with members of the associated press on the record, in which he called berlin his soul mate. >> he gave another interview. >> surely it couldn't be that bad, right? >> this was a whole lot more than a simple affair it's a love story i crossed lines i shouldn't have crossed as a married man. >> i remember there was an older couple sitting to our right. they could see a spark. >> 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

compared it to edwards or with 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. >> 10,000 years before the birth of paul atreides, we founded a sisterhood. while your harkonnen, you are the strongest among us without spice, the great houses would feed me to the worm the troubles are far greater than just arrakis. let us rid the imperium of these witches forever. >> stop dune prophecy streaming exclusively on max. >> now's the time to go back in time and shine a light on the family journey that led to you. learn when they said, i do. when they became heroes,

how they ruled the school, and what you got from your parents. the place is on mom's side and dad's side. detailed dna results, inspiring family history memberships. now's the time to save at ancestry. >> everyone's running to subway for three. all new spicy footlongs. wait, subway did what? that's right. they're bringing the heat with creamy sriracha, jalapenos and all new ghost pepper bread. but hurry! these subs are only here for a limited time. >> i'm jordan and these are my breasts. we've been through some big changes. divorce, a new city, and a new grandson. and just as i was starting my next chapter, metastatic breast cancer, it was then that i also found out about kisqali, a pill that stops cancer from growing and can help me live longer. since then, i drove cross country, finished a degree, met mr. right now, and finally saw

my favorite band kisqali may cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in serious infections, life threatening lung problems, and abnormal heartbeats can occur. >> your doctor should check your heart and do blood tests before and during treatment. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening cough, chest pain, dizziness, plan to become pregnant or breastfeed. tell your doctor about medical conditions you have and medicines you take. common side effects include nausea, tiredness, diarrhea, vomiting, and headache. >> i'm more than just breast cancer and i have a lot more to go come play with me get 2.99% apr plus eligible

know they'll love every time. visit hickory farms.com to get your holiday shopping done. >> luther. never too much new year's day at eight on cnn in the wake of the scandal, jenny left mark. >> south carolina's first lady

says she's filing for divorce. >> there's not room for three people in a marriage. >> and there were calls for his resignation across the state. >> mark sanford said no because he felt he could still effectively govern. >> critics then called for sanford's impeachment. they opened an ethics investigation in the hopes of finding that his trip to argentina contained criminal use of taxpayer dollars. >> i was on the judiciary committee. i was 22, 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 impeachable. >> 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 reimbursed the state, the hearings were dropped. now he just needed to win back the public. >> he embarked on what i remember turning in a story at one point, an 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 and i'm moving forward. i think the people of south carolina wray jen psaki mark sanford served out his full two terms as governor, the maximum allowed by south carolina law in 2012. >> he got engaged to his soul mate, maria belén chapur, 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 of second chances, but third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth chances, because that is the 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 comeback, right? >> mark's reentry into politics wasn't a stumble free. in 2014. he broke up with maria via a 2300 word post on

facebook. but after all that, it was in 2018 that sanford finally faced a foe he could not bounce back from when he denounced trumpism as bad for the republican party. and trump clapped back in a tweet donald trump endorsed sanford'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, no. >> if you need that narrative, that's fine. >> i don't if you don't think it's true, tell me what you think. >> 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 $1.5 million in his bank account. he took a dive. why? he needed the universe to make a decision for him. he was unhappy in congress. christ knows i watched him be unhappy in congress, but he can't. he

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 it 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 and made clean and comprehensible for the american public. the big surprise was that even after mark sanford's brand had dissolved so spectacularly, the south carolina public embraced him even more. authenticity trumping perfection. ironically, a lesson harnessed by his main detractor, 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 incredible 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 him. >> scandals decapitate people. scandals take people completely out of the game and mark sanford, that didn't happen to mark. 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 >> start building a new story, even if it took him a long walk along the ap