Kennedy Expresses His Regrets for Chappaquiddick
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BOSTON — Shortly before the 25th anniversary of Chappaquiddick, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy Friday issued a statement expressing regret about the incident in which a woman drowned in a car he was driving.
“I bear full responsibility for the tragedy, and I always will,” the veteran Massachusetts Democrat said in the statement issued from his office in Washington regarding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.
“I have expressed my remorse to my family, the Kopechne family, and the people of Massachusetts. I only wish I had the power to do more to ease the continuing pain I feel and that Mr. and Mrs. Kopechne feel for Mary Jo’s loss,” he said.
Kennedy, 62, was a young senator when he drove off a bridge at Chappaquiddick on the island of Martha’s Vineyard after a party July 18, 1969. Kopechne drowned in the accident but Kennedy left the scene without reporting it.
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