Craig gives prime-time apology

BOISE – Sen. Larry Craig apologized to Idahoans Tuesday night in his first interview since news broke of his arrest and guilty plea in a bathroom sex-solicitation sting.

He also sharply criticized a Boise newspaper for investigating his sexual history, denied being either gay or bisexual and vowed to stay in office.

Said Craig, “It’s time for me to speak out.”

Craig made exclusive arrangements with NBC for the two taped interviews, one with reporter Mark Johnson of the Boise NBC affiliate KTVB-TV and the other with NBC News reporter Matt Lauer. The NBC interview was broadcast across the nation during prime time, pre-empting regular programming.

Craig told Lauer, “I made a mistake, I made a very big mistake, Matt, and that was to plead guilty. I should never have done that.”

Craig agreed to the interviews after a month and a half of silence and nonresponses to interview requests, including one from The Spokesman-Review.

Craig told Johnson, “I do believe Idahoans want to hear what has gone on in Minneapolis, and I want to tell them, because I, by my action, have put them through a lot in the last month and a half. And I apologize to them for any of the negative that’s come about, or the frustration that’s come about from a decision I made that was not the right decision, and all that has transpired since then.”

Craig and his wife, Suzanne, sat for both interviews at their home in Eagle, just west of Boise, on Sunday.

Suzanne Craig told Lauer, “I honestly believe my husband has always been faithful to me in every way.”

Craig told Lauer that he’s neither gay nor bisexual. When Lauer asked him, “Do you view it as something that would be awful to have to admit, that you were gay?” Craig responded, “I don’t agree with the lifestyle, and I’ve said so by my votes over the years and by my expressions. Have I viewed it as awful? I viewed it as a lifestyle I don’t agree with.”

Craig insisted he had no idea what the undercover officer in the Minnesota airport bathroom thought he had done, or that his foot-tapping and hand movements under the stall wall matched common signals for soliciting gay sex. Craig again said he was simply reaching to pick up a piece of paper.

“This was an officer that was more interested in the arrest than he was the facts,” Craig told Lauer.

In both interviews, Craig was sharp in his criticism of the Idaho Statesman newspaper, which he blamed in late August for his decision weeks earlier to plead guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in Minnesota.

“We’d been through a 10-month unprecedented investigation, looking into our private lives, our children’s lives, our children’s adoption records, Suzanne’s divorce records,” Craig told KTVB’s Johnson.

Suzanne Craig added, “They called 300 of our friends. They talked to them. They didn’t ask what they knew about Larry Craig; they spread a rumor that came from a blog.”

Idaho Statesman columnist Dan Popkey spent several months investigating Craig after a blogger last year claimed he had proof that the senator had engaged in homosexual sex in a public bathroom near his office and attempted to “out” him as gay. Many Idaho news outlets, including The Spokesman-Review, published articles based on the reports and Craig’s denials, which included his terming the reports “completely ridiculous.”

Popkey’s paper published nothing, choosing instead to do its own investigation into the allegations. After an interview with Craig in May in which Craig denied the allegations, the paper dropped the story – until news broke in late August of Craig’s arrest and guilty plea.

“It’s the Larry Craig-as-victim defense and ‘the Statesman made me do it,’ ” said Jim Weatherby, Boise State University political scientist emeritus and an observer of Craig since both were students at the University of Idaho. “I’m not sure it’s a very effective defense, when then he goes on to say what a fighter he is.”

Craig said when he mailed off his guilty plea in August, “There was a sense of relief, and I hoped it would go away. I wanted to avoid a media storm. I didn’t. A media storm came.”

Craig told no one about the incident until the news broke Aug. 27, not even his wife. Lauer asked him, “Why didn’t you tell her?”

“It was a tough call, Matt, a very tough call,” Craig responded. “I was very, very embarrassed about it. I wrestled with it. I didn’t want to embarrass my wife, my kids, Idaho and my friends. … I sought no counsel.”

Weatherby said, “He said he was embarrassed. You’d think people in that situation would be outraged. … I’m questioning how effective his performance will be, and how much it will change anybody’s mind.”

Craig said, “I want to stay in office, and I’ve said I will stay in office to finish my term. Resigning and walking away would have been the easy way out. I think most Idahoans know I’ve never taken the easy way out. I stand my ground; I fight when I think I ought to for the sake of Idaho, and in this case it is for Idaho.”