In a February 2007 appearance on "Meet the Press", Edwards told Tim Russert, "over time, when I reflected on what I thought was going to be necessary going forward, to have some moral foundation to work on issues like poverty and genocide, things that I care deeply about, I could no longer defend this vote. It was pretty simple. And I got to the place I felt like I had to say it and had to say it publicly. And so— what? — a year — a year or so ago I did that." He subsequently apologized for that military authorization vote.