Editing John Edwards (section)

===Post-Senate activities===
[[File:Edwards Sarandon Robbins.jpg|thumb|[[Susan Sarandon]] and [[Tim Robbins]] appear alongside Edwards at a presidential campaign rally in 2008]]

The day after his concession speech, he announced his wife Elizabeth had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Edwards told interviewer [[Larry King]] that he doubted he would return to practice as a trial lawyer and showed no interest in succeeding [[Terry McAuliffe]] as the [[Democratic National Committee]] chairman.

In February 2005, Edwards headlined the "100 Club" Dinner, a major fundraiser for the [[New Hampshire]] Democratic Party. That same month, Edwards was appointed as director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] for studying ways to move people out of poverty. That fall, Edwards toured ten major universities in order to promote "Opportunity Rocks!", a program aimed at getting youth involved to fight poverty.

On March 21, 2005, Edwards recorded his first [[podcast]]<ref name=Podcast>{{cite web |title=Sen. John Edward's Podcast |url=http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Politics/U.S.-Government/Sen-John-Edwards-Podcast/6875 |website=Learn Out Loud |access-date=11 April 2015 |date=2008}}</ref> with [[Elizabeth Anania Edwards|his wife]]. Several months later, in August, Edwards delivered an address to a potential key supporter in the Iowa caucus, the [[AFL–CIO]] in [[Waterloo, Iowa]].

In the following month, Edwards sent an email to his supporters and announced that he opposed the nomination of Judge [[John G. Roberts]] to become [[Chief Justice of the United States]]. He was also opposed to the nomination of Justice [[Samuel Alito]] as an Associate Justice and Judge Charles Pickering's appointment to the Federal bench.

During the summer and fall of 2005, he visited [[homeless shelter]]s and job training centers and spoke at events organized by [[Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now|ACORN]], the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]] and the [[Service Employees International Union|SEIU]]. He spoke in favor of an expansion of the [[earned income tax credit]]; in favor of a crackdown on [[predatory lending]]; an increase in the [[capital gains tax]] rate; [[Section 8 (housing)|housing vouchers]] for [[minority group|racial minorities]] (to integrate upper-income neighborhoods); and a program modeled on the [[Works Progress Administration]] to rehabilitate the [[Gulf Coast of the United States|Gulf Coast]] following [[Hurricane Katrina]]. In [[Greene County, North Carolina]], he unveiled the pilot program for College for Everyone, an educational measure he promised during his presidential campaign, in which prospective college students would receive a scholarship for their first year in exchange for ten hours of work a week. The College for Everyone program was canceled in July 2008.<ref>{{cite news |first=Rob |last=Christenson |title=Edwards ending college program |url=http://www.newsobserver.com/news/higher_education/story/1160097.html |work=[[The News & Observer]] |date=July 31, 2008 |access-date=August 4, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906135759/http://www.newsobserver.com/news/higher_education/story/1160097.html |archive-date=September 6, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Edwards was co-chair of a [[Council on Foreign Relations]] task force on [[Russia-United States relations|United States-Russia relations]] alongside Republican [[Jack Kemp]], a former congressman, Cabinet official and vice presidential nominee.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cfr.org/publication.html?id=8142 |title=John Edwards and Jack Kemp Co-Chair Council Task Force on Russian-American Relations – Council on Foreign Relations |publisher=Cfr.org |date=May 31, 2005 |access-date=May 24, 2010}}</ref> The task force issued its report in March 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cfr.org/publication/9997/ |title=Russia's Wrong Direction |publisher=Council on Foreign Relations |access-date=May 24, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100524214330/http://www.cfr.org/publication/9997/ |archive-date=May 24, 2010 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> On July 12, the ''International Herald Tribune'' published a related [[op-ed]] by Edwards and Kemp.<ref>Edwards, John. (December 31, 1969) [http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/12/opinion/edkemp.php We need to be tough with Russia –] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905210248/http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/12/opinion/edkemp.php |date=September 5, 2008}}. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved on June 3, 2011.</ref>

In October 2005, Edwards joined the [[Wall Street]] investment firm [[Fortress Investment Group]] as a senior adviser and consultant, a position for which a close aide reported he received an annual salary of $500,000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2005/nf20051013_3314_db016.htm |title=John Edwards Hits the Street |work=Bloomberg BusinessWeek |date=October 13, 2005 |access-date=May 24, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822222121/http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2005/nf20051013_3314_db016.htm |archive-date=August 22, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Young |first1=Andrew |title=The politician: an insider's account of John Edwards's pursuit of the presidency and the scandal that brought him down |date=2010 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |location=New York |isbn=978-0312640651 |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/politicianinside00youn}}</ref> Fortress owned a major stake in Green Tree Servicing LLC, which rose to prominence in the 1990s selling subprime loans to mobile-home owners and now services subprime loans originated by others, but in an interview Edwards said he was unaware of this.<ref name="Fortress">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/10/AR2007051002277.html |title=Edwards Says He Didn't Know About Subprime Push |author=Alec MacGillis and John Solomon |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 11, 2007 |access-date=May 13, 2007}}</ref> Subprime loans allow buyers with poor credit histories to be funded, but they charge higher rates because of the risk, and sometimes carry hidden fees and increased charges over time.<ref name="Fortress" /> In August 2007, ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' reported that a portion of the Edwards family's assets were invested in Fortress Investment Group, which had, in turn, invested a portion of its assets in subprime mortgage lenders, some of which had foreclosed on the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims.<ref>{{cite news |last=Cooper |first=Christopher |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118728685546999884 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401162611/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118728685546999884 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 1, 2015 |title=Free Preview – WSJ.com |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=August 17, 2007 |access-date=May 24, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/17/america/NA-POL-White-House-Edwards-Foreclosure.php |title=John Edwards says he will divest funds linked to lenders foreclosing in New Orleans – |work=International Herald Tribune |date=March 29, 2009 |access-date=May 24, 2010}}</ref> Upon learning of Fortress's investments, Edwards divested funds and stated that he would try to help the affected families.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna20321742 |title=Edwards to end investments with lenders: Says he won't have his money involved with Katrina-related foreclosures |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=August 17, 2007 |access-date=August 17, 2007}}</ref> Edwards later helped set up an ACORN-administered "Louisiana Home Rescue Fund" seeded with $100,000, much of it from his pocket, to provide loans and grants to the families who were foreclosed on by Fortress-owned lenders.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/09/14/edwards_to_the_rescue_on_forec.html |title=Edwards to 'Rescue' On Foreclosures |newspaper=The Washington Post |author=Alec MacGillis |date=September 14, 2007 |access-date=September 17, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523102238/http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/09/14/edwards_to_the_rescue_on_forec.html |archive-date=May 23, 2011 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

As of 2014, Edwards was a personal injury lawyer in [[Pitt County, North Carolina]].<ref name=Pitt>{{cite news|last1=Zachary|first1=Kristin|title=Edwards trying case in Pitt County|url=http://www.reflector.com/news/edwards-trying-case-pitt-county-2452629|work=The Daily Reflector|date=15 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417212724/http://www.reflector.com/news/edwards-trying-case-pitt-county-2452629|archive-date=April 17, 2014|quote= ... one of three lawyers representing the parents of a 4-year-old Virginia boy who was 3 months old in 2009.}}</ref> He was invited to and attended the [[2024 Democratic National Convention]], which was the first DNC he attended since his Vice-Presidential nomination in Boston, twenty years earlier.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2024-08-22 |title=Convention Insider: The Unexpected Reappearance of John Edwards |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/22/us/elections/john-edwards-dnc.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240929230124/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/22/us/elections/john-edwards-dnc.html |archive-date=2024-09-29 |access-date=2024-12-12 |language=en |last1=McCreesh |first1=Shawn }}</ref>