Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., whose once-promising career was seemingly destroyed by sexting scandals, is eyeing a political comeback and exploring a return to New York City Council.
Weiner, 60, who resigned from Congress in 2011 after admitting to sending women explicit photos, has filed to run for a seat on the council where he previously served for six years in the 1990s representing Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn.
Campaign finance records list a campaign committee that was set up on Friday for Weiner called Weiner 25, in addition to listing him as a candidate for a council seat in Lower Manhattan.
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In a phone conversation Tuesday with The Associated Press, Weiner said he is “still exploring” whether to actually campaign for the office. He said he opened the committee late last week so he could participate in a forum held by the Downtown Independent Democrats later this week.
He said on his weekly radio show that he hasn’t fully decided on a run just yet and is considering the personal dynamics of a return to politics.
Responding to calls from reporters and listeners to his 77WABC radio program last month, Weiner said he wasn’t done with politics and that people in his neighborhood have approached him about returning to office.
“The way I always unpack these things is ‘What does it mean for me and my neighbors?’ The city has always been the way that I have looked at service. And, you know, we are Democrats. We stand up… for each other… we don’t like people being victimized by bullies,” Weiner said.
Weiner said New York City should always be the “shining laboratory” of Democratic Party ideals and said that “for years we had Republicans running this town.”
From 1994 to 2002, Republican Rudy Giuliani served as mayor. He was succeeded by Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Independent Michael Bloomberg until 2013.
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The City Council, however, has historically been a supermajority of Democrats and currently has just six Republicans compared to 45 Democrats.
Weiner blamed part of the homeless and migrant problem on a 1979 class action suit brought against then-Gov. Hugh L. Carey and Mayor Ed Koch that resulted in the “Callahan Decree” – which instituted a right-to-shelter for homeless men.
He continued through a litany of things he would like to see improved about the city, such as being able to walk into a Duane Reade with his son and not find most of the store’s goods locked up.
Weiner was once seen as then-Rep. Chuck Schumer’s protégé and had a close relationship with his fellow Brooklynite. When Schumer gave up his House seat and successfully won the Senate seat of retiring Republican Al D’Amato, Weiner replaced him in 1999 and served 12 years before resigning in disgrace after sending lewd photos.
After his resignation, Weiner continued sexting under the pseudonym “Carlos Danger.” The main recipient, Sydney Leathers, who was 22 at the time, claimed the former lawmaker referred to himself as “an argumentative, perpetually horny middle-aged man.”
He tried to make a comeback in 2013 to run for mayor but was damaged by new revelations of explicit photos Weiner had sent under the pseudonym.
A few years later, in 2016, he was embroiled in another sexting scandal during which he separated from his wife, longtime Hillary Clinton confidante Huma Abedin, who is now engaged to Alex Soros, the son of left-wing billionaire George Soros. In one image Weiner sent, he was lying in bed with his young son.
Later that year, claims surfaced again, this time that Weiner had sexted a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina and his laptop was seized. Investigators found emails pertinent to Clinton’s classified documents scandal that preceded her upset loss to President-elect Donald Trump.
Weiner later checked himself into rehab for sex addiction and in 2017 was sentenced to 21 months in his federal sexting case – which imploded his then-bid for mayor. He was released in 2019 and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
