Edwards is a Democrat who voted for a 2002 resolution giving President Bush authority to invade Iraq. He has since apologized for the vote. He said Friday he had believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that President Bush should have been given the authority to make the invasion decision. “On both scores, it turned out I was wrong,” he said.
Edwards acknowledged to reporters that he did not read a classified report on Iraq available to members of Congress before the 2002 vote. He said he read an administration summary of the report, called the National Intelligence Estimate. He said he also talked to high-level officials of the Clinton administration.
The subject of the report arose recently amid criticism of Sen. Hillary Clinton, another Democratic presidential candidate who voted for the resolution. Clinton has declined to apologize for her vote, but has said if she knew what she knows now, she would have voted differently.
Her aides acknowledged recently that she did not read the classified report before voting for the invasion.
War critics contend the administration’s summary of the report glossed over skepticism contained in the complete document.
Edwards said Friday that he did not need to read the report because he was receiving information directly from intelligence officers as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I had the information I needed,” he said. “I just voted wrong.”
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