Disgraced former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner says he wants a second chance and is considering a run for New York City mayor.
In a New York Times Magazine interview, an emotional Weiner and his wife, longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, spoke at length for the first time about the 2011 sexting scandal that led to his resignation.
John Brabender, Republican strategist and former senior adviser to the Santorum campaign is also a crisis manager for Brabender & Cox, told Jansing & Co. that Weiner may have a tough time making a comeback. “He did everything wrong. And he did the one thing that you can never do and that’s lie. With that said, since that point he’s done the right things.”
In the Times interview, Abedin recalled the moment she was told the truth. “Anthony said: ‘I have something to tell you. I can’t lie to you anymore. It’s true. It’s me. The picture is me. I sent it. Yes, these stories about the other women are true.’ And it was every emotion that one would imagine: rage and anger and shock.”
New York Times Magazine says Weiner’s eyes teared up as he talked about coming clean to his wife. “She was devastated. It was brutal. It was completely out of control. There was the crime, there was the cover-up, there was harm I had done to her. And there’s no one who deserved this less than Huma.”
Brabender says he thinks it’s too soon for Weiner to try to come back from the scandal. “He kept lying about it and trying to cover it up. And so I do think it’s going to take longer to forgive. People want to see that this isn’t just new-found sincerity but that it works over time for him.” Aisha Moodie-Mills, a strategist with the Center for American Progress, tells Jansing & Co. that Weiner is on the right path. “I think he’s doing the right thing by starting off apologizing and trying to humanize himself and make himself a little more likable than he was before the scandal broke.” Moodie-Mills adds that Weiner would be wise to get some high-profile advice. “He also has the ear of some really great mentors who have been through this before: the Clintons. I would imagine that they are helping him think about how he needs to connect with the public, how he needs to really connect with himself and consider what his actions have done with regard to his family and with regard to his political chances.”
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