Former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) has broken his silence, giving his first interview since the scandal that drove him from Congress in 2006.
Foley sat down with West Palm Beach’s NBC TV affiliate, WPTV, on Nov. 6, telling the station that the last few years have been “torturous,” “difficult,” and “embarrassing.”
The interview was posted to WPTV’s website last night and will air today throughout the station’s newscasts.
“There’s times when you look back and say, ‘That’s a blur,’ but at the same time you realize it was such a horrific part of my life, [I] wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, and yet there were positive moments when you had a chance to reflect on your life and adjust to the circumstances,” Foley said.
Foley resigned from Congress in 2006 after the revelation that he had exchanged sexually charged instant messages and e-mails with former male congressional pages.
In the interview, Foley denied that his contact with underage boys constituted pedophilia: “You know, people are juxtaposing e-mails to 17-year-olds to putting it in the common parlance of calling it pedophilia, which is absolutely wrong,” Foley said.
“They were like drunk dialing, drunk text messaging,” Foley said. “They were wrong, and I assume full responsibility. I’m not trying to excuse my behavior.”
After the scandal broke in September 2006, Foley publicly stated that he was an alcoholic and had been abused by a priest at the age of 12. He checked into an Arizona rehabilitation clinic in October of that year.