NYC Mayoral Candidate Caught Sexting (Again), Vows to Stay in Race
Anthony Weiner, the former congressman who resigned in disgrace after lewd photos he had sent to young women were publicly exposed, held a press conference Tuesday in Manhattan where he admitted that he had basically done that exact same thing all over again, even after promising he wouldn't.
Weiner recently announced a surprisingly soon return to politics by entering the race for mayor of New York City, and he was actually in the lead in some early polls. But this latest revelation may derail his campaign. Not only did he continue the behavior he had sworn off, to both his family and to voters, he kept it up for more than a year afterward—even after his son was born in summer 2012.
And to top it all off, he used a pseudonym to try to cover his tracks: Carlos Danger.
Yes, Carlos Danger.
A 22-year-old woman revealed to the website TheDirty.com that she and Weiner had exchanged numerous explicit photos (you can read about it here; warning: some NSFW content). Weiner acknowledged that the pictures were real at the press conference, but tried to say that he, and his wife, had moved on, that he had stopped doing this sort of thing after last summer. (Really, this time.)
Huma Abedin, Weiner's wife and a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, read from a prepared statement, saying, "Anthony’s made some horrible mistakes, both before he resigned from Congress and after. ... We discussed all of this before Anthony decided he would run for mayor, so really what I want to say is, I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him."
Unsurprisingly, Weiner's campaign opponents have called on him to drop out of the race. So have several New York newspapers, including the Daily News and The New York Times.
But for now, Carlos Danger remains an active candidate for mayor of New York.