- Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner is interested in running for local office, telling the New York Post, “I’m really good at this” in a new interview.
- Weiner said he’s managing his “personal demons” and has been encouraged by his ex-wife Huma Abedin to get back into politics.
- The comments come almost six years after Weiner completed a prison sentence for sending sexually explicit messages and photos to a 15-year-old girl.
Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner is eyeing up a return to politics nearly six years after completing his prison sentence for sending sexually explicit messages to a minor.
While speaking to New York Post‘s Kirsten Fleming, Weiner, 60, insisted, “I’m really good at this. I’m good at coming up with ideas. I’m good at fighting to get those ideas passed,” when asked why he wanted to start over.
Weiner is considering running for New York City Council to represent District 2 — which includes neighborhoods in Manhattan like the Lower East Side and the East Village — telling the outlet that he’s been attending recovery meetings to manage his “personal demons.”
“I struggle with addiction, and I know what it is. I manage it,” Weiner said. “No one of good faith, I think, made the argument that my acting out and my struggles had led me to be a bad congressman. I was really good at my job.”
He admitted that during his time away, he “had no belief [a return] was possible.”
Anthony Weiner.
Corey Sipkin/NY Daily News Archive via Getty
Weiner shares son Jordan, now 13, with his ex-wife Huma Abedin, 48, who was vice chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. The former couple were married from 2010 to 2017.
He insisted his ex, who is now engaged to billionaire Alex Soros, has been supportive, telling the Post, “Huma said, ‘This is kind of what you were born to do.’ … She’s been encouraging.”
“I love this city, and it’s part of my identity. If the choice is [me] as a good councilman for the district, fighting for the right things, being good elected office — or I don’t because someone might be mean to me? Then I don’t see a real compelling argument not to run,” Weiner continued.
The politician has been involved in a string of sexting scandals through the years. The first came to light in 2011 and it led to his resignation from Congress that June, around 12 years after he became a representative for New York’s 9th Congressional District in 1999.
He had tweeted out a graphic photo of his crotch, which was reportedly meant to be sent to a 21-year-old college student in Washington state, The Seattle Times previously reported.
He went on to run for mayor of New York City in 2013, conceding his campaign after finishing fifth in the Democratic primary following a second sexting scandal.
In the summer of 2016, a woman then came forward to say he had been sending sexually suggestive photos and messages to her.
In the final month of the 2016 campaign between Clinton and Donald Trump, the FBI seized Weiner’s computer amid media reports of yet another transgression — this time with a girl, who prosecutors said had informed him “early on” that she was in high school.
Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin pictured in 2011.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
The federal investigation led to former FBI Director James Comey announcing days before the 2016 election that the bureau would launch an investigation into emails between Clinton and Abedin, which were recovered on Weiner’s computer.
Ultimately, the FBI announced it had found nothing illegal in Clinton’s emails, but Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in prison with three years probation for sending sexually explicit messages and photos to a 15-year-old.
He began serving his prison sentence in November 2017, before moving to a halfway house 15 months later. He was released in May 2019, and is a registered sex offender.
