It’s day five of the John Edwards trial. The former North Carolina senator is being tried on six felony charges stemming from an extramarital affair that produced a kid and ended a political career. The one-time golden boy of the Democratic Party is officially being charged with accepting illegal campaign contributions designed to keep his mistress quiet during his presidential campaign. But in the court of public opinion, Edwards is on trial for something much more personal and seemingly something much less forgivable.
Edwards’ fall from grace was so quick, so severe, it begs the question: how does this scandal rank among American politics’ most infamous infidelities? To put the this trial and scandal in some historical context, we’re joined by Dr. David Eisenbach, historian and lecturer at Columbia University and host of the new H2 TV series, “10 Things You Don’t Know About.”