Anthony Weiner’s wife, a Clinton aide, dumps him amid new scandal
NEW YORK — Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin is done playing the good wife to Anthony Weiner, announcing Monday she is leaving the serially sexting ex-congressman after he was accused of sending raunchy photos and messages to yet another woman.
Abedin, who as vice chair of Clinton’s campaign is destined for big things if the Democrat is elected president, stayed with Weiner after a sexting scandal led him to resign from Congress in 2011 and after a new outbreak of online misbehaviour wrecked his bid for New York mayor in 2013. She didn’t leave even when a recent documentary blew up tense moments in their marriage to big-screen proportions.
But on Monday, she effectively declared she had had enough.
“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” she said in a statement issued by the campaign. “Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life.”
The New York Post published photos late Sunday that it said Weiner had sent last year to a woman identified only as a “40something divorcee” who lives in the West and supports Republican Donald Trump. The photos included two close-ups of Weiner’s bulging underpants.
In one of the pictures, Weiner is lying on a bed with his toddler son while texting the woman, according to the Post. The tabloid also ran sexually suggestive messages that it said the two exchanged.
Weiner told the Post that he and the woman “have been friends for some time.”
“She has asked me not to comment except to say that our conversations were private, often included pictures of her nieces and nephews and my son and were always appropriate,” the 51-yearold Democrat told the newspaper.
Weiner didn’t return a call, text or email from The Associated Press. He deleted his Twitter account Monday.
The Post didn’t say how it obtained the photographs and messages.
Abedin, 40, is a longtime Clinton aide and confidante who is often referred to as the candidate’s second daughter.
Trump immediately seized on the aide’s marital split to accuse Clinton of “bad judgment.” He suggested that Weiner might have seen and spread classified information, but offered no evidence to support the allegation.
Since losing the bid for mayor, Weiner has remained in the public eye, commenting on politics on cable news shows. “Weiner,” the documentary offering a cringeinducing inside view of his mayoral campaign, played in theatres earlier this year and is set to air on Showtime this fall.