Anthony Weiner has, finally, come clean. In an emotional press conference just now in which he choked up at various times he’s surely not enjoying the spotlight anymore Weiner admitted that last Friday night, he accidentally tweeted that infamous boner photo to a girl in Seattle instead of direct-messaging it as “a joke,” he claimed. “I panicked, I took it down, and said I had been hacked,” he explained. But, as became increasingly clear throughout the day, this wasn’t Weiner’s first foray into internet flirting, and he also admitted to having “inappropriate conversations conducted over Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, and occasionally on the phone” with about six women over the past three years, both before and after he was married, although he maintains that he never met the women in person nor “had physical relationships at any time.” Responding to questions from reporters after reading his statement, Weiner struggled to explain why the hell he did this. “This was a very dumb thing to do,” he acknowledged. “If you’re looking for some deep explanation for what I did, I don’t have one.” Though apologizing to his constituents, to Andrew Breitbart, to the girl in Seattle, and to his wife Huma (who found out the truth this morning), Weiner said he wouldn’t resign.
Why not resign? Weiner says that while what he did was wrong, he didn’t break any laws, violate his oath of office, or breach the House’s rules of conduct. (Maybe they should amend them to include “No Tweeting your junk to college girls”?) “My Blackberry is not a government Blackberry,” he added. “My home computer is usually where I did these things.” He’ll now “try to go back to work and be a better person, a better man and a better husband as well.”
Speaking of being a better husband Weiner said, with certain understatement, that his wife was “not happy” and “thought that what I did was very dumb.” However, he added, “I love my wife very much and we have no intention of splitting over up this. I love her very much and she loves me.”
Earlier: Before Weiner’s Press Conference, Breitbart Holds Court
