Top leaders from both parties, including President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, had said or suggested that Weiner should step down over the controversy, which has been a major story since the news emerged in late May.
Weiner to seek treatment amid growing pressure to resign. Weiner announced that he was seeking treatment and requested a two-week leave from Congress that was granted without objection. However, Weiner resisted the calls to resign, bolstered by polling that showed a majority of residents in his district wanted him to stay on. With more revelations of the sexually tinged online communications emerging and the story continuing to dominate headlines, Weiner changed his mind this week after his wife, Huma Abedin , returned from an overseas trip with Clinton.
Weiner's wife returns as pressure mounts for his resignation. Weiner called Israel on Wednesday to tell him he was going to resign, said a source familiar with that conversation.
Israel, who was at a White House picnic for members of Congress, then got Weiner on the phone with Pelosi, the source said. Israel and Pelosi went near a tree on the White House grounds to talk to Weiner in private, according to the source.
Weiner told them that he was resigning and was very remorseful about what he did to his family and his colleagues, especially for causing such a distraction, the source added. Weiner also told Israel and Pelosi that he had talked to his wife, who is pregnant with the couple's first child.
Weiner decision revealed at White House picnic. Pelosi said earlier Thursday that Democratic leaders "respectfully gave him time and his wife came home for them to talk. Back in Weiner's home district, supporters praised the congressman for working on their behalf but criticized his behavior, while opponents said good riddance. As for Weiner's future, Rootenberg said, he "had a very good chance at being mayor, but at this point I'm not so sure. Weiner might have been next New York mayor.
He also ran for New York mayor in and had discussed seeking the office again. Obama critical of Anthony Weiner. Congressman Weiner 'to seek help'. My 'flirtation' with Congressman Weiner. Calls for Weiner ethics inquiry. What to make of Weiner photo row. Congressman admits underpants photo. Congressman admits to Twitter photos. US lawmaker admits lewd picture. Weiner, 46, made the announcement at a senior center in Brooklyn, New York, where he first launched his political career nearly two decades ago.
He said that despite his indiscretions, he would continue to pursue the spirit of public service that first led him to run for office. Weiner's decision to leave office came 10 days after his news conference admitting he lied to his family, colleagues and constituents about risque online behavior with multiple women while married to Abedin. View an exclusive slideshow of images from the scandal obtained by ABC News.
While polls showed a majority of Weiner's constituents did not think he should resign, the embattled congressman had come under enormous pressure from Democratic Party leaders to step down because the swirling scandal was seen as a "distraction.
Pelosi signaled at an earlier news conference that Democrats now intend to pivot back to talking about the issues they'd rather discuss, including slamming Republicans on the budget and Medicare overhaul.
Now we Democrats only have one congressman who will actually speak out and tell the truth and that's Bernie Sanders. It's a sad day, yet another man ruined by his carnal desires. I can't believe he's having to resign over this when Bill Clinton was did have relations with another woman, in the Oval Office no less, was actually impeached by Congress, and even then he didn't have to leave! Bernie Sanders isn't in fact a Democratic congressman, he's an independent but he caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate so that amounts to much the same thing.
The difference between Weiner and Clinton is that no one was in a position to force Clinton to retire other than through impeachment.
Weiner was far more vulnerable to party pressure — and he had an election in It also signals an ignominious pause if not an end in a once-promising political career. Weiner ran for New York mayor in , and had talked of seeking the office again.
He at first denied having sent any inappropriate photos, then recanted in a remarkable news conference 10 days ago at which he admitted having exchanged inappropriate messages with several women. His confession triggered a tabloid-style frenzy in print and online that only grew more pronounced a few days later when an X-rated photo of the year-old lawmaker surfaced on a website. Does it matter? The Democratic Party lost all momentum with its Medi-scare campaign due to a self-inflicted wound that festers at least as long as Weiner remains in office, and cannot heal until he disappears.
By refusing at first to tell the truth, and then by refusing to resign, he dragged his party, his friends, and his wife through a frustrating, bizarre scandal that shouldn't have lasted even one week.
Had he resigned the day of his fateful Breitbart hijacked news conference, the news cameras would have gone away by the end of the week. Instead, weeks later, the cameras were parked outside his home to film his wife's return home yesterday, and hovering over porn star Ginger Lee's silly 'news conference.
The party did, the media did, and Americans did, after pausing for a quick chuckle. Politico watches the locked door :. Walking past the crush of TV cameras and reporters in the Rayburn House office building, a woman stopped to ask, "A press conference? Out here? Since news broke this morning that Rep. Anthony Weiner plans to resign, there has been no sign of the congressman at his office. But there's plenty of other activity. A delivery man tried to bring a package to Weiner's door, but gave up after the T.
Some passers-by snickered or used their smartphones to photograph themselves in front of Weiner's hallway name plate before it's removed. Democrats walking by had little to say about the matter, other than that it will help them get back to their message of jobs, the economy and protecting Medicare.
Not gonna happen. The one person he has, however, been most compared to is former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, whose fall from grace after his thankfully not photographically chronicled and tweeted prostitution scandal resulted in a spell in the purgatory of media oblivion, before a return to the spotlight with his own television show.
Weiner could go that route, too, eventually — and, goodness knows, liberals all-but-universally loved him on camera when he kept his clothes on. It was Breitbart who first broke the news of Weiner's first "bulging underpants" tweet, and that's why we're here now.
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