Sen. Larry Craig's interview with Matt Lauer

On August 27, the news broke, and broke big. The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that Republican Senator Larry Craig, a family values conservative, had been arrested in a sex sting at an airport men's room and had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

A day later, the Idaho Statesman published the story it had been holding detailing every rumor about Craig's past.

The story was, instantly, everywhere.

Craig -- with Suzanne at his side -- declared that pleading guilty had been a mistake.

He said he intended to resign, but almost immediately changed his mind and said he'd try to reverse his guilty plea.

The response was swift and brutal, both from late night comics and from longtime Republican colleagues.

Matt Lauer: Mitt Romney, John McCain, Peter Hoekstra, Mitch McConnell, and we have an expression in New York, they threw you under the bus.
Larry Craig: Uh-huh (affirm).
Matt Lauer: What was it like as a wife to see that happen, Suzanne?
Suzanne Craig: It was, for me and for our children, I was very disappointed and very hurt to see some of the people that Larry's worked with and for and supported for years--
Matt Lauer: Forget working. These are friends, weren't they?
Suzanne Craig: Some of them were friends.
Larry Craig: Weren't they? Interesting question, Matt.
Matt Lauer: Well, doesn't seem as if they are today.
Larry Craig: Matt, the--
Larry Craig: --said it well.
Suzanne Craig: Go ahead.
Larry Craig: We were very disappointed. And I was hurt, you know? I've worked with several of these people a long while. They didn't even pick up the phone and call me. They simply took the media report verbatim and reacted.
Suzanne Craig: --the doubt. No benefit of the doubt.
Larry Craig: I was very proud of my association with Mitt Romney. I'd worked hard for I'm here in the state. I was a co-chair of his-- campaign on Capitol Hill. And he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again.
Matt Lauer: What's it like to be Larry Craig in the senate right now? Do you-- when you're walking down the halls of the senate building, do you notice people walk to the other side of the hall?
Larry Craig: No. Not at all.
Matt Lauer: Do you--
Larry Craig: There are a few--
Matt Lauer: --cafeteria, you don't sit alone?
Larry Craig: No.
Matt Lauer: They're not parking in your parking spot?
Larry Craig: They better not.
Matt Lauer: So you don't feel you're being shunned to your face?
Larry Craig: Well, let me put it this way. There are some, and you've mentioned their names, who really can't make eye contact.

Larry Craig: I didn't give anybody a place to hide by pleading guilty … I gave no quarter for my colleagues to stand in. That was a very big mistake.

Matt Lauer: Do you think if there was an allegation against you that you had been involved in an extramarital affair, that a heterosexual extramarital affair, would this be a big deal? Because there are other names in the senate that find themselves in that situation. And I don't remember a lot of people asking them to resign.
Suzanne Craig: It would've been a big deal to me.
Suzanne Craig: --wouldn't be sitting here.
Larry Craig: Matt-- Matt, that's exactly what I was going to say. It would've been a very big deal to this wonderful lady beside me. But it would probably not have been-- as big a deal as this one has been portrayed in the media.
Matt Lauer: You have taken, senator, several opportunities to say, come out point blank and say, "I am not a homosexual."
Larry Craig: Uh-huh (affirm).
Matt Lauer: Which raises two questions in my mind. One of them, and you're going to have to forgive me for this, are you technically not a homosexual? Is it possible you're bisexual?
Larry Craig: It's no to both.
Matt Lauer: The other question is do you think it would be something that would be awful? In other words, do you view it as something that would be awful to have to admit that you were gay?
Larry Craig: 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.
Matt Lauer: You wouldn't view it as one-- something that would be a source of great shame if you had to admit it?
Larry Craig: I'm not sure that I've ever looked at anyone else's sex life as great shame.
Suzanne Craig: And-- and some people think that he pleaded guilty to homosexual activity, when in fact he did not.
Matt Lauer: Is it semantics?
Suzanne Craig: On whose part?
Matt Lauer: Meaning if you plead guilty to the charge of disorderly conduct based on what happened in that men's room, in some way are you pleading guilty to soliciting gay sex?
Larry Craig: Well--
Suzanne Craig: No.
Larry Craig: Matt, I don't believe so, because I didn't do it. And I know here, I'm innocent.
Matt Lauer: You filed your guilty plea, as we said. And you then tried to have it withdrawn.
Larry Craig: Yes.
Matt Lauer: And the judge was pretty strong, senator--
Larry Craig: Sure.
Matt Lauer: --in his rebuke. And he said, "No, you knew what you were doing. And you waited a month and a half before you did it." Do you plan to appeal that?
Larry Craig: Yes, I do. In fact, we are filing that appeal.
Matt Lauer: On what grounds?
Larry Craig: On the grounds that we don't get a fair shot. That I want a right to defend myself in a court of law. I made a mistake. I made a very big mistake, Matt. And that was to plead guilty. And I shouldn't have done that. We should have gone to court, faced up to the political firestorm and the media storm at that time.
Matt Lauer: Told your wife.
Larry Craig: Told my wife. Done--
Matt Lauer: Told the people of Idaho.
Larry Craig: Told the people of Idaho. Done all of those things. I want a chance to do that, you know? It's important to me. It's important to my family that I clear my name. And I'm going to use all the rights I have as a citizen to try to do that.
Matt Lauer: Your favorite newspaper, the Idaho statesman, in an editorial as to why you should resign said, "we cannot afford … to have a senator who merely provides fodder for bloggers and late-night talk show hosts." So can you be effective, senator?
Larry Craig: I've really asked myself that question. I've got nearly 30 years of seniority that's Idaho's. Idaho gained that seniority and power because I was there and I had that longevity. This isn't my seat. It belongs to Idaho.

Matt Lauer: But some of the people in Idaho, senator, according to polls, think that you should resign.
Larry Craig: Oh, yes, they do.
Matt Lauer: And so will you resign?
Larry Craig: No. I won't resign. I will finish out my term. Let me tell you--
Suzanne Craig: Because there's so many more who don't want him to resign.
Larry Craig: My dad taught me when I started a job, to work hard and finish it, no matter how tough it got.
Matt Lauer: But with all due respect, your father never envisioned gay sex stings in airports and senate ethics committee investigations, senator.
Larry Craig: I think the principle applies to anything you do in life.
Matt Lauer: You know, you said something earlier. You said by pleading guilty you wanted it to go away. That's what you wanted … you can resign, senator. And you know what? It would probably go away.
Larry Craig: Uh-huh (affirm).
Suzanne Craig: It wouldn't be the same.
Larry Craig: And, matt, that's the easy way out. You've talked about my history and my record. You know I'm a fighter-- that I don't just walk away from a fight. This is the toughest fight of my political life.