Abedin says she’s separating from Weiner after sexting scandal
Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, announced Monday she will be separating from her husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., following another sexting scandal.
“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband. Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy,” Abedin said in a statement.
The announcement comes after the New York Post reported Sunday that Weiner had been sending lewd photographs of himself to another woman while his wife was on the campaign trail with Clinton.
One of the photos included his 4-year-old son in the background.
Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 over a similar scandal, and his 2013 race for New York mayor was upended by another set of lewd online exchanges. Weiner’s Twitter account appeared to have been deleted Monday.
A documentary about the mayoral race was released this year. The film featured the couple trying to resurrect his political career — neither Abedin nor Weiner watched the final product, according to Weiner’s August interview with The New York Times Magazine.
In that interview he was asked if he was “still engaging in the activities that got you in trouble.”
“I’m not going to go down the path of talking about any of that. But I will say this: There’s no doubt that the Trump phenomenon has led a lot of people to say to me, ‘Boy, compared to inviting the Russians to come hack someone’s email, your thing seems almost quaint,’ ” Weiner said.
Abedin has been Clinton’s right-hand woman for more than two decades. She began working as an intern at the White House when she was just 19 years old. Abedin is now vice chairwoman of Clinton’s campaign.
Trump weighed in shortly after the announcement saying that Abedin made the correct choice, but questioned whether Weiner had access to classified information. It is not immediately clear where that question stems from.
“I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him,” Trump said.
“I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information,” he said. “Who knows what he learned and who he told? It’s just another example of Hillary Clinton’s bad judgment.”