“The View” co-host Ana Navarro confronted disgraced former Democrat New York Rep. Anthony Weiner on why he should be trusted to reenter politics after all of his infamous scandals.
Weiner has been the subject of numerous scandals involving sending obscene material via online, causing him to resign from Congress and eventually even spend time in jail. As he is campaigning to serve in the New York City Council, Weiner told Navarro that “he accepts responsibility” for his past actions and refuses to play victim in the situation like some other politicians facing legal troubles.
“You’ve resigned from Congress in 2011 over a sexting scandal, two years later you stepped down from the mayoral race after sexting again under the alias Carlos Danger, and then in 2016 you sent nude texts to a minor and served 15 months in prison in addition to becoming a registered sex offender. So with all that said, why do you think or why should New Yorkers give you a chance at a political comeback?” Navarro asked.
“Well let me just say this, all of that happened and I accept responsibly for it,” Weiner said. “You won’t hear me do what some other people in public life have done, [like] Donald Trump or Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams, [saying] ‘I’m a victim, they persecuted me for no reason.’ I was dealing with very serious problems, I was dealing with what I now understand to be addiction, I lost my brother Seth to addiction. And I didn’t ask for a trial, I pled guilty, served my time in prison, served in the halfway house, served probation, went to try and do good work for the former incarcerated. And I guess what I’m saying to people is, maybe don’t vote for me despite of what they know about me, but maybe consider that journey, that idea that we all go through things and we come out the other side.”
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Weiner resigned from Congress in June 2011 after details emerged about him sending lewd and explicit photographs of himself to women, The New York Times reported. The scandal escalated after a photograph of himself wearing tight underpants was sent to a college student in Washington State, which he later admitted to sending after having initially denied it.
The then-congressman also admitted to having inappropriate online exchanges with at least six other women, according to the Times. His Democrat colleagues, including the then-President Barack Obama, called on him to step down.
These online exchanges continued after his resignation from Congress, causing him to drop out of his 2013 mayoral race in New York City, according to Politico. He initially campaigned as a reformed man, but a woman who later identified herself as Stephanie Leathers came forward in July 2013 with evidence of her extramarital online relationship with Weiner, prompting him to admit that he had online exchanges with six to ten women at the time.
Weiner entered into legal trouble for knowingly sending “obscene material” to a 15-year-old between January and March 2016, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. Despite knowing she was in high school, he allegedly used “graphic and obscene language” to ask the minor to “display her naked body and touch herself.”
The Southern District of New York sentenced Weiner to 21 months in prison in September 2017 for “transferring obscene material to a minor.”
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