The Justice Department is expected to indict former Senator John Edwards as early as Wednesday for violating federal campaign finance laws.
On this weekend's "Chris Matthews Show," the host along with Time magazine's Joe Klein and the Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan said the DOJ should leave Edwards alone (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Welcome back. Our big question this week: Does it strike you as appropriate for the justice department to go after John Edwards with a criminal investigation of the use of donated money for Edwards’ mistress and their daughter? Joe Klein?
JOE KLEIN, TIME MAGAZINE: Leave him alone. I mean, why waste our effort on that when we haven't indicted a single banker after the crash of 2008?
MATTHEWS: Gloria.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN: I don't know enough of the facts. I don't know whether Edwards personally directed that this money should go to some kind of cover-up of his mistress but millions of dollars. This?
MATTHEWS: Was it campaign money though?
BORGER: I don't know the answer.
KLEIN: Billions.
MATTHEWS: Andrew, do you like the smell of this case?
ANDREW SULLIVAN, DAILY BEAST: No I don’t, and I agree entirely with my esteemed colleague Joe that we should focus on the people who plunged this country...
MATTHEWS: Yeah, we got enough real crime out there without worrying about this stuff. That’s my view.
Who thinks Klein, Matthews and Sullivan would feel this way if Edwards was a Republican?
