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 appalachian trail to get there being from philadelphia, i have an inherent distrust of anything that comes from new jersey. although i do acknowledge that the garden state punches way above its weight when it comes to political scandals. in 2004, the democratic governor of new jersey, jim mcgreevey, stepped into a press room just like this and became an overnight sensation when he admitted to a gay affair and resigned. in the same speech, the governor coming out of the closet was genuinely shocking. a career killer at that time. looking back, though, i can't help but feel that we were all so quick to embrace the headline that we may have forgotten to dig a little deeper. because the reason why jim mcgreevey resigned is a lot more

complicated than we remember on new jersey, america's communal jacuzzi, or cesspool, depending on who you ask a land with its own unique culture and customs, and a political landscape that can be rather, shall we say, in-your-face. >> you're done. it's 430. you've maximized your tan. get off the beach. >> new jersey is a rough and tumble place, man. you know, it's not for the faint of heart. >> the politics, the money, the press, the media, the scrutiny are all larger. >> i teach new jersey politics, and they say that to people. they laugh at you and they say, oh, that's going to be a fun chorus about corruption. >> yes, new jersey has a reputation for corruption being

baked into the political process with some political operatives of the belief that if you don't get your hands dirty, you probably don't want it enough. so when a fresh faced, squeaky clean kid from jersey city named jim mcgreevey won the governor's office, it seemed too good to be true. >> so help me god. >> but this was jersey, so it was. no sooner was he sworn in than rumors started to circulate about the shady things he had done to get there. come on over, governor. >> we always had a perception that jim mcgreevey was unable to say no to certain powerful political allies. >> you have to make some deals with the devils to get the party line, get the party nomination, and mcgreevey, from my vantage point, was more than willing to do it. >> when it came to mcgreevey.

lee kushner, yes. of those kushner's, there is speculation that kushner and mcgreevey had a quid pro quo relationship that kushner was going to become his biggest developer, and he wanted certain things in return. >> charlie kushner and the kushner family started to pour huge amounts of money into his campaign. these are the kinds of ways that oligarchs like charlie kushner develop their power. >> and then there were rumors that mcgreevey had hired unqualified friends for key administration roles. >> there were allegations of corruption, extortion and nepotism in his administration. >> rumors of favor, trading backroom deals and a campaign finance fraud investigation from u.s. attorney chris christie were all swirling around mcgreevey when one hot august day in 2004, he called a press conference, but instead of talking about any of that, he dropped this bombshell.

>> and so my truth is that i am a gay american. >> he was gay and having an affair with a man, and he was resigning with headlines like these, who cares about government corruption? >> tonight, a stunning admission from new jersey governor james mcgreevey, the twice married father of two, admitted today he had an extramarital affair with another man. >> it was shocking. everything about it was shocking. >> and i remember one of the senior reporters at the paper, she lets out just this instinctive response of a gasp like, oh mcgreevey's coming out. >> might not seem gasp worthy today, but keep in mind 2004 was a very different time, and the most prominent gay people that many americans knew were fictional characters on a tv show portrayed by actors who themselves were not openly gay. so pop culture in the media latched on to the gay jokes with the maturity of a 13 year old hopped up on pixie sticks.

>> i mean, sure, the guy's a fanuc. big deal. he had an affair. every married guy's got some action on the side. in this case, in the behind, it was inexcusable inexcusably high chapter titles in jim mcgreevey's book, politicians who left a bad taste in my mouth. >> all right, now that's. >> but here's the thing. there was such a fervor around mcgreevey's coming out that the story of all the political corruption surrounding him got lost. >> mcgreevey said he felt forced to resign because he was gay. that, i think, is wrong. and i think that the people who pushed that story line either don't know the story or don't want to know the story. >> people were digging into it, and all that digging stopped when he resigned. not for that, but for being gay. >> while jim denies it to this day, is it possible that he didn't resign to escape the public circus around his

sexuality, but to escape an avalanche of other corruption allegations headed his way? with the benefit of a little hindsight, jim mcgreevey has emerged as someone both aware of and open about how he justified a series of disastrous political choices and how his overpowering ambition led him down a path of public and personal deception that seemed almost destined to implode. governor, thanks so much for doing this. oh, it's a pleasure. so your story is so interesting because you were living a lie. the secret life. how did you justify this to yourself? was this just. well, this is what gay men have to do, and i just have to pretend to be something else. and lots of other gay men are in politics pretending like you know, i didn't wake up and say, you know, i'm going to be deceptive for the sake of deceiving. >> i'm going to create this whole double ledger. no, i didn't make that decision prior to a gubernatorial campaign, i made it, like at 7

or 8 years old. i can remember this as if it were yesterday. i go to my local public library and i'm pulling out the card catalog, looking for the word homosexuality. and it said underneath, see, psychiatric illness. and it was just like, whoa, this thing. at least then in america called gay wasn't a good thing. i realized at that point in time that life is going to be a very painful trajectory. if i own this and you just try to make an accommodation, albeit an unhealthy accommodation. but the irony is, in politics it was actually a useful tool, really, because so much of the american political persona is to craft a narrative. >> jim married his first wife, kerry schultz, in 1991 and began to craft the false narrative that he knew would help him look the part for the role he really wanted to play. >> you're perceived as

straight male on top of the food chain, so that actually reconfirms in an unhealthy way. the rightness of of the. decision jim mcgreevey was a very young, aggressive politician and wanted to be governor for a long time. >> he'd gone to georgetown law school. he was a bright guy, and he also was very ambitious guy. he was kind of a backslapping kind of guy. he wanted to be liked. he wanted you to like him. >> thank you. made my day. thank you. >> i think jim clearly wanted to be governor and would do anything to get that job. >> part of it was because i believe in the promise of america. i believe there's this great experiment known as american democracy. and i think i can work well with people. so much of it is also fueled by, you know, ego and and self. but i knew that these were at that time, two mutually exclusive

narratives. >> ambition and being gay. >> yeah, that that could not coexist. >> chekhov has this theory about a gun. the chekhov's gun. if you introduce a gun in the first act of the play, it's going to go off by the third. yep. was that gun your homosexuality? you're being gay or was it your ambition? >> it was both. >> it was the intersection of these two inextricable forces. at some point in time, the tragedy comes to a head. >> 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 the

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lowe's knows how to help you holiday can i get some more coffee? >> is that possible? the governor will have some coffee, too. yeah. sitting across from jim mcgreevey. now, he seems like an affable, easygoing guy. and that's exactly the political persona he cultivated to succeed in the cutthroat arena of jersey politics. by the time he ran for governor, he had been closeted for most of his life. >> everyone has some level of accommodation. and for me, i want to run for governor. so you make this decision to be like what it is that america says is the right thing to do. so you can flourish. are you ready to rumble? >> the power in new jersey is who becomes governor. >> the race for governor between incumbent republican christine whitman and a little known democratic state senator, jim mcgreevey, because he was so little known and not independently wealthy,

mcgreevey had to rely on his work ethic to get his name out. >> he didn't stop, called him the energizer bunny. he just kept going and going. >> the governor's race is tighter than ever, but work ethic could only take him so far. >> he lost his first race for governor by a narrow margin. >> i would like to congratulate our governor, christine todd whitman, for her reelection victory. >> you lost to governor christie todd whitman very narrowly, 27,000 votes. >> yes. not not that i remember. >> no, exactly 27,000 votes. >> i actually remember where i was, i was. tell us about that. i was walking along the fraser river and i thought to myself, well, you know, what do i do? and there was a moment like, i can break out of this, but i had been too deeply shaped by my own history to, at that point, change the narrative. >> so jim dug deeper into his life after his first marriage

ended. rather than arouse suspicion as a bachelor, he pursued his family man image by marrying dina matos, an unsuspecting, picture perfect political wife. before long, she was pregnant and he was running for governor again. >> i declare my candidacy for governor of the great state of new jersey jim was clearly the democratic frontrunner and frontrunner. >> gets through the county line. it gets you scares off your opponents money. frontrunner gets money. >> enter real estate tycoon and democratic mega-donor charles kushner charlie kushner is the father of former white house adviser jared kushner, and a major new jersey real estate developer. >> it became clear to charlie people with the power to make things happen were democrats, and that he himself could be a kingmaker.

>> charlie was like a get it done guy. >> so that was an authentic connection that you had with him. >> you think? yeah. oh, definitely. without a doubt. >> and he helped support you. he raised money. it's expensive to run statewide in new jersey. it's like a $40 million race. >> oh, it's. yeah. and back then, yes. >> mcgreevey needed someone like kushner to bankroll him. so kushner donated huge sums of money to jim's campaign. thank you. at the same time, there are benefits to having a governor in your back pocket. for someone like kushner having a close relationship who can grease all sorts of wheels such as contracts, zoning approvals and tax abatements, that is your ticket to power. >> so charlie kushner gave over half $1 million to mcgreevey's campaign efforts. >> there is a word that can help you out with many ethical issues when it comes to money. that word is no. >> kushner didn't just open his pocketbook for jim mcgreevey. charlie would fund educational trips to israel,

like the trip where mcgreevey met the man for whom he risked everything. you went to israel on a trip? >> yep. >> and in rishon letzion, you met golan cipel? yes. >> i'm traveling throughout israel. and this young person is sitting across from me, and he begins to dissect my campaign. >> he knows your race. >> he knows the race as well as i do with arguably better insights. he's good looking and he's articulate. >> was it an instant attraction? yeah. >> and then he joined you. when you. >> he corresponded during the course of the campaign. this is not an intellectual decision. this is not a head decision. this is a heart decision. >> meanwhile, you married dina in 2000. >> yep. >> you're running for governor in 2001? >> yeah. >> all this time, golan is making outreach. >> yeah. >> i think he also saw this as an opportunity. an opportunity to get involved in politics. >> so how cognizant were you

that bringing golan cipel from israel to new jersey to be on your staff was setting yourself up for what happened? >> it's a great question i sincerely don't know the answer. >> you don't know? i don't know the answer golan cipel was eager to come to new jersey to join mcgreevey's campaign, but he needed papers to work legally, which would cost him another favor from charles kushner, who had the businesses to sponsor the work visa. >> now, with all their fates tied together, mcgreevey, cipel and kushner set out to win the new jersey governor's race at any cost. >> jim mcgreevey, the democratic candidate he's been able to spend $1.7 million so far. >> jim mcgreevey has spent about $20 million. i got a figure, mcgreevey would say. >> how many fundraisers do we need to do? i'll be there. >> we have had eight years of failed leadership. i'll speak. >> you'll pay, i'll collect.

it was a well-oiled machine, and everybody was working under the impression that this was the gravy train that was coming into station. >> jim mcgreevey will be the new governor of new jersey am i anything special? >> but fundamentally, as i said in this campaign, i'm a jersey guy. yeah. >> in november 2001, jim mcgreevey was elected governor, and suddenly the whole world was watching his every move. because just two months earlier, the largest terrorist attack in u.s. history had occurred right nearby in new york city is in shock, and america is under siege with terrified new jersey residents watching the horror of nine over 11 from across the hudson. people were asking, how will jim mcgreevey keep us safe

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>> i'm doctor sanjay gupta in atlanta and this is cnn. >> closed captioning is brought to you by mike, an all in one home access and monitoring system my garage. >> i'd be closing while i'm hiking in wyoming. if my home just had a brain mcgreevey became governor just months after nine over 11. >> the most significant terrorist attack on the united states in modern memory. hundreds of new jerseyans and thousands of americans died in a single day. and now, jim mcgreevey's constituents were demanding that public officials keep them safe. >> the city is now working on a detailed proposal to outline what they think could work. >> mcgreevey lacked experience

on the subject, so he needed to hire someone as a national security adviser. he also had a seat to fill on the new york, new jersey port authority board, which would decide what to do with ground zero. so whom did he pick for these roles? his lover, golan cipel, and his friend and benefactor charles kushner. let's take those two bad decisions one at a time. when was it that you actually became intimate with golan? >> um. >> i don't keep a diary i'm surprised that jim mcgreevey didn't remember the date, because, according to his autobiography, it was one night when his wife was in the hospital recovering from the birth of their daughter. >> so the timing of this is interesting. you win election in november 2001. you and golan have your first actual moment as lovers. in december 2001.

and then a few weeks after you're sworn in, talking to reporters, you mentioned him. >> yeah. >> publicly? yep. in february 2002, at a meeting with the press defending new hires in homeland security, mcgreevey said, we will not skimp on security. and he added that golan cipel was, quote, a security advisor from the israeli defense forces, probably the best in the world, not probably. they do the best in the world. you still think he was qualified for that job? >> he was. >> he wasn't home, by the way. >> wasn't homeland security? no. the homeland security advisor was a counselor to you. and that was one of the things in his. >> that wasn't in his portfolio. the homeland security advisor had 20 years in the fbi. but, i mean, so you think there's something about being an israeli that does give somebody. >> yeah. >> but should he be in. should he? should. he had all been in that portfolio. the answer is no. clearly and unequivocally. >> you brought him up. >> you brought him up in that meeting. you didn't bring up the fbi guy? >> yep, yep. >> you brought up golan? yep. >> i was in i was in with the

fbi guy. >> did you want to be outed? did you want to be discovered? >> yeah. you. it's probably a mix or a components or factors as that decision making. not to practice psychiatry without a license, but at some level, i was doing something there. you know, these are great. i you know, i've got to get a therapist. after having an interview with jake tapper. i don't know, i mean, like part of it was being in the closet or, you know, as they say in aa, we're only as sick as our secrets. it was clearly not an astute political act. i mean, it was well, the next day. >> what happened? all these reporters were calling is like, who is this guy? >> why is there an israeli on the new jersey payroll, which are all legitimate questions? >> staple is a man mcgreevey brought to be his six figure security advisor. under a cloud of controversy. >> golan did not have anything on his resume that would suggest a qualification for this job. and then, given the fact that he was an israeli

national here on a work visa, he was not going to qualify for security clearance. remember, it's four months since nine over 11. this is homeland security after the biggest terrorist attack on u.s. soil in history. people are like, what the hell? >> yeah. it's crazy what we all didn't know was jim mcgreevey hired his boyfriend to a position his boyfriend was not qualified for. >> there was a lot of coverage while you were governor of what was called in new jersey. the pay to play. yeah. give money to somebody and running for office. and then you can get on a lucrative board of some sort. so, charles kushner you put him on the port authority board. >> this is the golden creme de la creme. it's the economic engine. you would argue for the region. >> people don't necessarily understand this, but the port authority is new jersey and new york, and it controls all sorts of decisions having to do with travel, bridges, bridges,

airports, roads, network, ships coming in, airports development. and who gets those contracts? it's incredibly lucrative. >> yep. i do have experience with development approvals business. >> this is the job that charlie kushner wants to be the head of the port authority. when the whole world is focused on this piece of property. >> jim mcgreevey has consistently denied that kushner lobbied him for the port authority position. but in 2002, journalist ron marsico reported a different story. >> jim lied. jim didn't lie well. he was looked at as a quid pro quo for kushner's political contributions, and i wrote a story about how charlie kushner had lobbied hard for this job. a few days later, i got a call from one of mcgreevey's operatives who said, ron, i want to set the record straight. charlie kushner did not lobby for that job. charlie kushner demanded that job. >> ron, determining what's an illegal quid pro quo versus just shady politics can honestly be difficult. but

what's clear is that kushner bankrolled mcgreevey's campaign. people were right to be concerned about any potential conflict of interest. and when the new jersey state senate summoned charles kushner to explain himself, he backed out instead. almost nobody noticed except for this guy the u.s. attorney, chris christie. after looking more closely at why kushner might have turned down the plum gig in order to not have to testify. chris christie discovered that not only did kushner funnel a suspicious amount of money to mcgreevey's campaign the way he had donated to certain campaigns was illegal. >> if you are corrupting our political system, this office will bring you to justice. >> charlie kushner violated fundamental principles of political giving. he would give money in the names of other people. if you are jim mcgreevey and you want money, this is a very beneficial practice because it wasn't just

the money that he could give, but the money that he could mobilize on someone's behalf. that made him particularly attractive to people running for office. >> he also secretly used partnership funds for political contributions, and when his siblings, including brother murray kushner, found out that their money was being used to fund politicians without their consent, they started cooperating with chris christie. >> if you choose to violate the law, you will be caught. you will be prosecuted. >> charlie kushner gets wind of what's happening. he thinks what is going on is my sister and my brother are conspiring against me, and i need to shut them up. and he decides to find a sex worker to proposition charlie kushner's brother in law and get it on videotape and decides that he's going to send the videotape to his sister. >> that's right. charles kushner tried to get his siblings to back out of testifying against him by

blackmailing his brother in law. his sister's husband, with a sex tape featuring a sex worker that charlie kushner had hired. only in new jersey. >> and they now have a new charge. witness intimidation every incredulous news report about the scandal included that, in addition to being that kind of guy, charles kushner was also governor mcgreevey's biggest donor. >> it was the kind of attention mcgreevey really wanted to avoid, especially considering the skeletons in his closet and the one on his payroll you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> he was a boss from the beginning. >> luther said, i have a sound in my head. i got to get it out. you are my shining star. >> my. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> if we were to be able to

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>> support more victories for veterans. go to. dav. org this is cnn, the world's news network. >> mcgreevey was in full retreat. kushner's criminal campaign donations kept mcgreevey's name in the papers, and the governor realized he needed to clean up his act. so he ended his sexual relationship with golan cipel and terminated his contract. but it was too little, too late. >> in that world of new jersey politics, there was some chatter about that. there was a relationship between chapelle and mcgreevey. >> at this point, we know jim mcgreevey gave golan a job and enabled him to get a visa. >> he was certainly on the radar of state house reporters and people who were covering it. >> nothing about the rumors about golan are provable and principal. obviously, their

relationship was strange and newsworthy in mcgreevey's autobiography, he writes, quote after press questions about his qualifications reached critical mass, golan had taken to calling me day and night to ask for his job back. >> the longer i stood listening to my former lover, the closer my world came to imploding. you told him you would walk away from all of it to be with him? yes. what did he say? no. no. because he wanted to be with the governor, right? >> yeah, that's what i believe. >> he didn't want to be with jim mcgreevey. yeah, mcgreevey kept helping cipel with employment and other favors. perhaps trying to keep him quiet. but in the spring of 2004, golan cipel threatened the governor that he would go public with claims he had been sexually assaulted by mcgreevey coming into the summer of 2004. >> there winds up being an unbelievable tidal wave of

scandal that's crashing down on the mcgreevey administration, and in fact, it's hard to find the right metaphor. was it a circus? >> mcgreevey's top fundraiser under investigation for, among other things, violating campaign contribution laws. >> was it a carnival? >> mcgreevey was being undone by nasty rumors of soap opera proportions. >> was it a merry go round? >> forecasters predicted that things would get worse for the governor. >> it was every single day going in. >> you feel optimistic? >> thank you. he's running from reporters. he wouldn't come out for public events. >> are you going to leave early? will you talk to us after the meeting at this point, the public perception of jim mcgreevey had transformed from picture perfect young governor to just another messy, corrupt new jersey politico. >> as the tensions built, remember that loaded chekhov's gun of political ambition and closeted identity i mentioned earlier? well, that gun was

about to go off. >> in that moment, mcgreevey arrived at a fork in the road, and he had to, in a sense, pick his scandals. what was going to bring him down? charles kushner and corruption or the boyfriend he accused you of sexual assault? >> yeah. >> which they wanted $50 million, but they would settle for five. >> yeah, exactly. i remember my attorney. he says i've got good news and bad news. i'm like, i could use some good news. all right. he came down 95%. the bad news is he still wants five. i said, all right. thank you. >> did you think that you were going to be able to weather the storm? no. and continue with your career? >> no, i didn't. >> one more audio check. okay. >> i'm sorry. i'll count to four this time. >> it was a hot august day, and i was sitting in the newsroom at wnyc where i was working, and i get a call in the afternoon. >> testing, testing. one, two. >> editors are running into rooms i mean, there's phalanx of cameras parents were there.

>> dina was there. it was hardest and most honest speech i had ever given in my life i mean, obviously, i would have preferred to do it in a more low key, subtle way. >> everybody was gathered around the televisions in the newsroom. >> good afternoon. >> hundreds of people. it was so quiet. you hear a pin drop and mcgreevey says the now famous line, my truth is that i am a gay american. >> so he got there on that stage with his wife standing next to him, giving him what is the most amazing, like four minutes of side eye that anyone's ever seen. >> shamefully, i engaged in an adult, consensual affair with another man. >> there was no way that that marriage was going to survive. >> so i am decided the right course of action is to resign to facilitate a responsible transition. >> you know, my parents were there. dina was there. and i really appreciated that.

>> dina was mad. >> yeah, she had a right to be mad. >> furious. but she was mad because she felt humiliated. >> yeah. >> and she had a right to. i was wrong. it's important not only that i recognize the damage to myself, but the damage to people that i love. >> mcgreevey, a father of two, said he had grappled with his identity for years, was forced into what he called an acceptable reality. >> the national conversation. can't we let the guy be gay? he's married. sure, but he was forced into the closet by an american puritanism. >> this country was still making it very hard for gay people to live out their lives. honestly. >> still, there is a sense of something unsaid in this discussion, and mcgreevey's words hint at something more. >> it just seemed hard to believe, and it seemed hard to believe, that jim mcgreevey was going to resign in office, that he'd spent his whole life trying to get by, falling on his sword for the gay thing. >> there was no longer a real reason to pursue

investigations. he was on his way out anyway. so what's the point of digging into his association with charles kushner? that all kind of went away. thank you. what would the american public, with its puritanical streak and its obsessive interest in people's sex lives, rather think about this. mcgreevey made the right choice as to which scandal was going to bring him down. at that moment welcome to times square that's not in my mind. >> what's so embarrassing? >> we are joined by john mayer. we are at a kat 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 en masse at fisher investments. >> we may look like other money

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>> it was like the craziest roller coaster ride i've ever been on in my life. that was an whooping. >> tom foreman and special guests look back. all the best. all the worst. 2024. thursday, december 26th at 11 on cnn. >> back in 2004, i was surprised that the news media treated mcgreevey's coming out like it was a bigfoot sighting. but in retrospect, this was really the beginning of mainstream news organizations covering gay issues as anything other than a political liability. that was the year that that happened to you, and it was also the year that it became a national issue. yeah. gay marriage was the wedge issue that president bush was using to win reelection. >> yeah. >> marriage is the most fundamental institution of civilization, and it should not be redefined by activist judges. >> 2004 everybody was anti-gay marriage. mcgreevey was anti-gay marriage. barack obama was anti-gay marriage.

>> a man and a woman. when they get married, are performing something before god. >> 2004 when mcgreevey was moving up, it would have been impossible to support gay marriage. and so i don't hold that against him necessarily. >> i am not apologizing, but his desire to be seen as a sympathetic, tragic case that this had all had been done to him as opposed to choices he had made and things he had done to others. >> maybe i'm just too catholic for that my truth is that i am a gay american and i am blessed. >> when mcgreevey said, my truth is, i'm a gay american and immediately framed everything that would come after the resignation in that line, it set the tone. it was a spectacularly well conceived pr strategy. >> apparently, mcgreevey thinks he left office as punishment for his homosexuality. this is nonsense. if anything, his admission of sexual preference won him more support. >> poll taken after the

announcement gives the governor his highest job approval ratings in two years. >> he said he was living a dual life all these years and now he can be free. >> you end up telling the truth about who you are to one of the fixers. yeah. and his response is, that's perfect. that'll really sell. and i thought, holy mcgreevey in that moment, wrapping himself in the rainbow flag. >> he had no right to. he'd known he was gay forever. why was he telling us now? because he had to. >> he tried to make it seem like he was being forced out because he was gay. when that wasn't the case at all. he was being forced out because he had put a lover on a state payroll in a position of security. just months after nine over 11. he had been so reckless and so unbelievably stupid. jim was forced to resign because he realized his position was untenable. >> i'm honestly torn on this.

on a personal level, i know american politics then, and in too many places in the us now makes it tough for lgbtq americans to be who they are. but as a journalist, i also know so much of what politicians do is calculated and contrived and spin. so the speech mcgreevey gave on national television was spin. just like his entire marriage had been spin, and he made his wife play an unwitting role in both. >> what was her first reaction? i think confusion. >> i didn't even know up until, you know, a half hour before my husband went on television what he was going to say. so i was really in a state of shock even though golan cipel never actually took mcgreevey to court, the damage had been done and mcgreevey was out of office. >> one could only imagine that he'd finished the week

thinking the worst was over. but charles kushner said, and i'm paraphrasing here, hold my beer. >> the spectacle of a political career derailed by a secret double life wasn't all that new jersey's resigning governor had to confront. >> there were some awkward stories for him and for new jersey this morning. >> jim mcgreevey resigns as governor, and five days later, charlie kushner pleads guilty to campaign finance violations, tax fraud and trying to entrap his brother in law to have sex with a sex worker to intimidate his sister. it is a remarkable confluence of moments. >> jersey governor really just can't seem to shake the scandal. his biggest campaign contributor is in federal court. billionaire real estate magnate charles kushner. >> one month after charges were brought against mr. kushner, he has pled guilty. >> charlie kushner eventually pleads guilty to 16 counts of tax fraud, witness tampering and lying about campaign donations. he's sentenced to two years. that was the end of

charlie kushner's influence over the new jersey governor. >> and with the engine of his political machine behind bars and the tabloids feasting on his private life. you would think that jim mcgreevey was done for. but this jersey boy wasn't finished just yet. >> that quote, unquote downfall in the eyes of the world profoundly changed my life. there's a transformative experience. you cross that abyss and you're in a different place. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross. once in a lifetime. >> he was a boss from the beginning. >> luther said, i have a sound in my head. i got to get it out. you are my shining star, my dear. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> if we were to be able to talk to luther as fans, we'd be able to say. we just love you. >> luther. never too much. new year's day at eight on cnn

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>> like the psalmists of old. i have asked god to create in me a clean heart. >> three months after he announced that he is gay and resigning, mcgreevey spoke of being a changed man. >> and so today, i still have a dream. thank you. >> i'll never forget the day after i resigned. before that, as governor, it was 14,000 calls, texts, calls and the phone goes dead. you can hear the birds in politics. it's boom. the day after, you're irrelevant. but it was. it was the beginning of. of god willing, crossing the abyss and beginning to rebuild the life that's authentic and and honest. >> so, charles kushner, what happened with him and his family? >> it was sad. i mean, he's a friend and he's been he's been

nothing but supportive. very quietly. all i can do is reflect on myself. but, you know, you're in a very different place in the second half of life. >> was jim mcgreevey, a politician who dove clear eyed into the muck, who traded favors and influence with unsavory folks to make his way to the top. sure. was his resignation a public relations masterclass in skirting responsibility for, among other things, putting a lover on payroll. absolutely. but i think at the end of the day, more than anything, jim mcgreevey was a guy who flat out wanted out of the persona he had created for himself. and this meant not only coming out of the closet, but out of the thunderdome of politics and ambition that had consumed him for decades. and by saying, i am a gay american at that podium, mcgreevey finally escaped two prisons of his own

making. at what would seem to be the lowest moment of your political and personal life. it's like the moment that you become free. yeah it's it's you break through the artifice and being closeted is just a is a very toxic place in the void that remained after mcgreevey's resignation. dina filed for divorce and jim mcgreevey, without his wife, began to quietly carve out a new life for himself. >> it was. >> i've never had that happen on the show however long of a journey it took. >> i'm very proud to be a gay american. thank you. >> a lot changed in the ten years after mcgreevey resigned in 2015, the u.s. supreme court

legalized same sex marriage in all 50 states, and mcgreevey, who had a decade prior opposed gay marriage, was now one of its leading advocates. >> being gay isn't an option. it isn't a matter. it isn't a discretion. it is who and what i am. >> do you think if you had been born 20 years later? >> oh, my life would have been so different? you know, it was just, you know, you just you would have been out of the closet. i would have been out of the closet. >> wouldn't have married kerry. you wouldn't have married? yeah, exactly. >> i would have been in a healthy relationship if i could rewind the tape. if i was brutally courageous, i would have said, this is who i am. i happen to be a gay american, and i'm not here because golan cipel is suing me on sexual harassment. i'm here because i know who i am. if i could go back in time, that's the speech i would have wanted to have made. but i didn't have the courage or the wherewithal to make that speech at an earlier point in time. so i made it at the last possible

second when i when i had to make it. >> jim mcgreevey probably would have been an even better governor if he was able to be himself. >> it's a terrible thing to out someone. mcgreevey really set in motion a set of circumstances that wound up outing mcgreevey. he outed himself, but sometimes to be outed against your will is the best thing that ever happened to you. in retrospect. the moment before, it's terrifying. the moment it happens, it's oddly freeing and liberating. >> that downfall was actually a path to grace. the thing that i was most afraid of, the thing that i was most afraid of, was i like. i embraced a place of total radical acceptance. ultimately, you have the rest of your life to live authentically and god willing, virtuously and to do good things. and every single day i'm working with addicts. i'm working with people coming out of prison. i'm working with combat veterans. >> it's behind these prison walls where former new jersey governor jim mcgreevey has found a new calling, counseling

inmates and working with them to prepare for life outside of jail. >> i guess i just wonder, like, did you want to show the world that you had changed? >> you know, i believe in a god of second chances and can cross this threshold and get to a healthy place because i'm here with you. i'm arm in arm. i'm not going anywhere. >> so this story has a happy ending. >> the story has a great ending. yeah jim mcgreevey post-scandal life has been a lesson in walking the walk. >> he is a model example of a politician turning a political downfall into an opportunity for reinvention. so it seems like mcgreevey has learned a lesson. but have we? when he resigned, we focused on the gay affair, not the corruption allegations. and that obsession with sex scandals, with the private lives of our politicians over the public good, or over the harm they can cause, that is still alive and kicking. and when the next

scandal arrives, the hot take might not be the