Sanford Hikes the Appalachian Trail (2009)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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It’s June 24th. This day in 2009, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is exposed for having an affair with a woman in Argentina.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how the scandal unfolded, and how Sanford’s team tried to use the feeble excuse that he was “hiking the Appalachian trail” when he was in fact in Buenos Aires.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:11.0	This day, June 24, 2009, the phrase hiking the Appalachian Trail enters the political lexicon.
0:19.0	I know it's an extremely niche joke and reference, but it is a euphemism that I still tried out to this day from time
0:24.1	to time I find it to be one of the funniest failed excuses and phrases in
0:28.6	history but look what was hiking the Appalachian Trail?
0:32.8	That was what staff members of South Carolina Governor Mark Samford had told reporters the
0:37.5	governor was doing over the previous few days when he was basically nowhere to be seen.
0:43.0	In fact, what the governor was doing was he was in Argentina,
0:46.0	among other things visiting a mistress of his,
0:48.0	a woman with whom he had had a five-year relationship that he claimed he was in Argentina to try and unravel.
0:55.4	Oh, by the way, this trip to Argentina, it was partially paid for it with taxpayer money,
1:00.7	which was really ended up being one of the big things at the center of all this.
1:04.8	So listeners, take off your hiking boots, gather around the campfire, let's make some smores,
1:09.8	and talk about the tale of Mark Sanford, the Appalachian Trail, and his Argentinian escapades.
1:15.4	Here to discuss, as always, are Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:20.0	Hello there!
1:21.0	Hello, Jody!
1:22.0	Hey there! I feel like our entire show has just been a
1:25.4	countdown clock to finally get into this story. We wanted to do it from the jump.
1:31.0	But one thing we should do is kind of get the timeline in order here because it is a little confusing.
1:38.8	So, Nicky, can you just start by laying out? There are rumors that Sanford has a mistress in Argentina,
	...

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