WASHINGTON Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Wednesday encouraged his supporters to donate to his campaign in response to "hateful" comments from conservative author Ann Coulter. Edwards made his first comments to The Associated Press in response to Coulter's suggestion that she wished he would be "killed in a terrorist assassination plot." His campaign cited her remarks in two e-mails and a telephone text message to supporters for donations, with the fundraising deadline on Saturday.
It's not the first time Coulter has given the Edwards campaign a financial boost. In March, she called Edwards a "faggot" and the campaign used video of the comment to help raise $300,000 before the end of the first quarter. In the e-mails, the campaign asked supporters to send donations to defy her remarks and help Edwards meet his goal of raising $9 million in the second quarter.
The first e-mail from campaign adviser Joe Trippi showed a clip of Coulter on ABC's "Good Morning America," where she made the comments on Monday. In answering criticism of her March speech, Coulter referred to comedian Bill Maher's suggestion, also in March, that "people wouldn't be dying needlessly" if Vice President Dick Cheney had been killed when terrorists launched an attack as he visited Afghanistan. She contends that Maher _ whose comment about Cheney drew little attention _ was not joking.
"So I've learned my lesson," she said on the ABC program. "If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot." WASHINGTON Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Wednesday encouraged his supporters to donate to his campaign in response to "hateful" comments from conservative author Ann Coulter.
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