Eliot Spitzer Chokes Up After A Rough Interview On 'Morning Joe'

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who is running for city comptroller this year, teared up Tuesday morning at the end of a rough interview on "Morning Joe" during which he was asked repeatedly about the prostitution scandal that forced his resignation as governor in 2008.

The show's hosts, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, and its guests repeatedly pressed Spitzer during the group interview. Spitzer began tearing up, however, when Brzezinski asked him, "As personally as you can answer this question — don't give me an answer that you've prepared in your mind — how are you different than you were five or six years ago? What has changed, personally?"

"A lot of pain. A lot of pain," Spitzer answered, fighting back tears. There was an awkward three-second pause.

"That's it," Brzezinski said.

"Yeah. You go through that pain, you change," Spitzer said.

Spitzer resigned as governor in March 2008 after the New York Times reported he had patronized a prostitution service called Emperors Club VIP. Investigators believed that he paid tens of thousands of dollars for prostitutes both before and during his governorship.

Here's video of Spitzer's full interview. His holding back of tears comes in the final seconds of the clip:

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