Former Schwarzenegger Press Secretary Interviewed by MSNBC's Martin Bashier

Friday, 20 May 2011 11:51

Written by Newsdesk

Sheri Annis, the former Press Secretary of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first political campaign, told MSNBC's Martin Bashir that she “never saw any inkling” that he was having an affair.

During the exclusive MSNBC interview, Annis said that despite having worked closely with Schwarzenegger for several years, she never suspected the affair and said that Schwarzenegger “did a really good cover-up job.” In addition, she said that in her time working for the campaign, it was clear that “Maria had his back on every occasion” but that Schwarzenegger had “never pretended to be a squeaky clean candidate.”

MARTIN BASHIR, MSNBC ANCHOR: I'm joined now by Sheri Annis, a former spokeswoman for Mr. Schwarzenegger just before he ran for governor. Good afternoon.

SHERI ANNIS, FORMER SPOKESWOMAN FOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Good afternoon. How are you?

BASHIR: Let's do the math here. You worked for the governor in 2001 and '02. He says he fathered his child more than 10 years ago, that would have been around that time. I'm assuming that he concealed this from you, too.

ANNIS: Certainly, certainly. I was his spokesperson at the time. Listen, if he concealed it from Maria, he certainly concealed it from me. Maria had his back on every occasion and it was known that she was always looking out for him. So he did a very good cover up job on this one.

And I take no pleasure in today's news. I hate to see it for any family, but especially someone who I knew and really did enjoy working with and for. And I saw a marriage that was -- it was a partnership, a real partnership, political partnership, entertainment partnership. They worked together well at the time.

BASHIR: And just to be clear again, Sheri, you had absolutely no idea.

ANNIS: No, certainly not.

I always spoke about how he acted did with me, which was always quite professional, because, obviously, I would receive these questions, have you been -- has he ever made an advance toward you or whatnot, which he certainly never did because everyone knew he was potentially running for political office at the time. We were sort of feeling our way to see if he might go in that direction.

I never saw any inkling of this. He never pretended to be a squeaky clean candidate. So that's the difference here between he and other candidates and other figures. But I had no indication that something, a bombshell like this was waiting.

BASHIR: Absolutely. Even when you worked for him, there were rumors of inappropriate behavior toward women, and he made remarks like, I have behaved badly.

What did he mean by that? And do you recall yourself any incidents that indicated he may have been too familiar with women?

ANNIS: Well, again, he did try to fully cover it up. He didn't really want -- nobody wanted to know the gory details, they wanted a confession out of him when -- we're talking about when he was running for governor.

What he meant is, I've done things that I shouldn't have done and that probably in an earlier time would have meant that I could not run for public office. But he apologized, that's what people wanted to hear. His wife backed him up and said, listen, he's a good man, you can still elect him, and go forward.

Arnold is a master of both marketing and compartmentalization, and I think that's what he did here. He knew what he had done, but he moved forward and he was moving into a different arena at the time, and he was able to keep it quiet from himself and, you know, it didn't seem to bother his conscience enough back then.

BASHIR: You knew him and his wife. How hurtful do you think this has been for her?

ANNIS: I can't imagine what it would be like, and I feel for her immensely.

You know, anytime in a marriage that you cross this line, you're essentially pushing the eject button. You know that you're potentially crossing that line. I think, you know, if I were in the same situation I would certainly not stand by my man.

Doesn't mean that they won't try to do the best they can for their kids, as they always have. I mean, Arnold used to try to take his kids to school and pick them up when he would potentially have the opportunity. But I'd say this is the worst thing you could do for your kids and I hate to see it.

BASHIR: Sheri Annis, former Schwarzenegger spokeswoman, thanks so much for joining us today.

ANNIS: Certainly.

Courtesy: MSNBC & Martin Bashir