Back in 2009, then-South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) made headlines when he disappeared without a trace for several days. After his staff claimed he had been hiking the Appalachian trail, it turned out he was in fact in Buenos Aires having an affair with an Argentine woman named María Belén Chapur. (He's since gotten divorced, engaged to Ms. Chapur, then broke off the engagement, but was still seeing her as of December 2017.)
Now Sanford — who is at the moment a South Carolina congressman — is one of the first sitting Republicans to criticize President Trump over the Stormy Daniels story. Trump allegedly arranged to pay hush money in October 2016 to the adult film actress, in order to keep secret an affair they had in 2006, mere months after Melania Trump had given birth. "[W]hat we can't do in the body politic is be purely tribal in our thinking," Sanford argues.
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