Pelosi calls for investigation of Weiner
Fallout from the New York congressman's admission continues as Democratic leader calls for ethics inquiry
AP/Harry Hamburg
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. gestures while speaking during her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 26.
Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, said Monday the committee should determine whether any official resources were used in Weiner's Twitter postings, and whether any House rules were violated.
Pelosi said, "I am deeply disappointed and saddened about this situation; for Anthony's wife, Huma, his family, his staff and his constituents.
She said she was calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred.
Weiner denied at a news conference in New York on Monday that he used any official resources.
Weiner leaving Forest Hills?
Reader sent in this tip:
Caught in the middle: Gennette Cordova was sent the now infamous crotch shot
He told reporters he sent the picture to her as a joke, something he is now ashamed of.‘I don’t know her, she was a follower, we had a cursory message exchange,' Weiner said today during the Manhattan press conference.
'I want to make it very clear that in the long list of people I have harmed here, she was one of them.
'I lied because I was embarrassed, and I didn’t want to get caught.’
But in confessing to having sent the picture, Weiner has exposed the girl as having lied when she has since jumped to his defence.
Cordova received the now infamous 'package picture' from the Democrat's Twitter account on May 27.
Loyal: Cordova defended the congressman after the scandal broke
It was a story Cordova stood by, releasing a statement two days later in which she said the account she had been sent the pictures from was one from a hacker she was familiar with who had been trying to 'defame' the congressman.
Infamous: The crotch shot Weiner sent to Cordova
'Since I had dealt with this person and his cohorts before I assumed that the tweet and the picture were their latest attempts at defaming the Congressman and harassing his supporters.
It is not clear whether she lied to protect her own involvement in the affair or whether she had felt under pressure not to cause a political storm.
The 21-year-old Seattle college student has already said the episode has jeopardised her academic career, embarrassed her family and shattered her privacy.
Many online messages have referred to Cordova as Mr Weiner's 'mistress' or 'self-proclaimed girlfriend', something they both deny.
Topless: One of the images Weiner sent to younger women online
Apology: Weiner said sorry for pictures, above, which he sent to women online
This evening on Twitter she wrote: 'He has had six inappropriate relationships with women online in the last three years. If it wasn't clear, I was not one of them.'
Later, she added: 'Beginning to not feel like a deflated beach ball. Thank you to anyone who offered support. I'm so grateful.'
Megan Broussard went public today with 200 lewd photos and messages from Rep. Weiner. He admits at least 6 online affairs. How many more are there? How many were under-age? ummmmmmm
NEW YORK — After days of denials, a choked-up Rep. Anthony Weiner confessed Monday that he tweeted a photo of his underpants to a young woman, and he also admitted to “inappropriate” exchanges with six women before and after marrying last year. He apologized for lying but said he would not resign.
NEW YORK — After days of denials, a choked-up Rep. Anthony Weiner confessed Monday that he tweeted a photo of his underpants to a young woman, and he also admitted to “inappropriate” exchanges with six women before and after marrying last year. He apologized for lying but said he would not resign.
“This was me doing a dumb thing and doing it repeatedly and lying about it,” the 46-year-old New York Democrat said after a week of double-entendre headlines and late-night wisecracks full of Weiner jokes.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi immediately called for an ethics committee investigation into whether Weiner broke House rules.
Weiner — who was widely expected to run for mayor of New York in 2013 — said at a half-hour news conference that he had never personally met any of the women he corresponded with online and sometimes via telephone over the past three years, and was not even sure of their ages. He also said he had never had sex outside of his marriage.
He said he did not feel the scandal affected his work as a lawmaker but would understand if his constituents decided not to re-elect him.
Weiner said he used his home computer and personal BlackBerry, not government computers, in his exchanges with the women. But that may not protect him from House rules that say a member “shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.”
On numerous occasions, the House ethics committee has cited that general rule in finding a representative violated standards of conduct.
Weiner apologized repeatedly to his wife, Huma Abedin.
“My wife is a remarkable woman. She’s not responsible for any of this,” he said.
Abedin did not attend his news conference, but Weiner said they would not be separating.
The scandal unfolded more than a week ago when a conservative website reported that a photo of a man’s crotch had been sent from Weiner’s Twitter account to a college student in Seattle.
The scandal escalated Monday when the website, BigGovernment.com, run by conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, posted photos purportedly from a second woman who said she received shirtless shots of the congressman.
At Monday’s news conference, Weiner said he sent the underpants photo as a joke. “I haven’t told the truth and have done things I deeply regret,” he said.
ABC News said Monday it planned to air an interview with a Texas woman who claims to be one of the women who exchanged messages with Weiner.
Weiner married Abedin, an aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton, last July, with former President Bill Clinton officiating.When the wife's away, Weiner will play.
Kinky Congressman Anthony Weiner conducted several of his steamy online sessions while his better half was out of the country, records show.
As the "body woman" to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Huma Abedin is tasked with accompanying the former first lady on diplomatic globetrotting missions.
Weiner, it seems, uses the timing of her foreign affairs to pursue domestic ones online.
For instance, last month, while Abedin and Clinton were in Rome meeting with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Weiner was chatting up Texas nursing student Meagan Broussard.
WEDDED DISS: Congressman Anthony Weiner marries Huma Abedin last July at the scenic Oheka Castle on Long Island.
"I don't think he has any control over what he's doing in this area," Broussard told ABC. "I don't think someone can be that open in that amount of time."
It's no wonder that Weiner dedicated much of his public statement yesterday to apologizing to his wife.
"My wife has known about some of these online relationships since before we were married, and we spoke frankly about them. But she didn't know until this morning that I had not been telling the truth about the Twitter picture I posted last week," Weiner said at his Midtown press conference.
"I think it is more inappropriate -- the things that I've done since I've been married," he said of his online transgressions going back several years.
"My primary sense of regret and my primary apology goes to my wife. I should not have done this, and I should not have done this particularly when I was married. That's why I make that distinction."
Abedin and Weiner were married last July by former President Bill Clinton, which may portend good things for their ability to stick together in light of his online infidelity.
Born in Kalamazoo, Mich., to Iranian and Pakistani parents, Abedin began working for the Clinton White House in 1996 as an aide to the first lady. The longtime Clinton aide -- who had her own photo spread in Vogue magazine -- was reportedly romanced by both George Clooney and John Cusack before hooking up with Weiner.
The political power couple met while Abedin was on the campaign trail during Clinton's 2008 White House bid. By 2009, they were engaged.
They wed last July at Oheka Castle in Huntington, LI.
Abedin has put on a brave face throughout the ordeal of the Twitter scandal, but she did not show up at his press conference yesterday. Her job requires her to be out of the country the equivalent of every other week, which may explain why Weiner has had so much time to flirt on Facebook and Twitter.
On March 16, while Nevada Democratic volunteer Lisa Weiss says he was sexting with her on Facebook, according to RadarOnline.com, Abedin was with Hillary Clinton visiting Egypt and Tunisia, federal records show.
At each stop, while Weiner discussed whether Jewish women were adept at performing oral sex, Abedin helped Clinton consult with government officials and elements of civil society on recent events in the Middle East and the full range of regional and bilateral issues
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/he_wife_worlds_apart_kVvpLJeulZ526Cv2W7Bf2O#ixzz1OZPvNmlQ
No comments:
Post a Comment