Huma Abedin announces separation from Anthony Weiner
Top Clinton aide Huma Abedin announced she’s splitting from her husband, former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner after news broke of yet another sexting scandal involving Weiner.
“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” Abedin said in a statement. “Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life.”
The New York Post on Sunday night reported that last summer, Weiner had started sexting with a buxom brunette who told him she was a supporter of Donald Trump. Among the photos the two exchanged was one Weiner crotch shot that also included his toddler son.
“Someone just climbed into my bed,” Weiner wrote to the woman, the New York Post reported.
“Really?” she wrote back. He then sent the photo -- which focused on his groin and showed he was clad only in white underwear, with his son next to him.
Weiner, according to the Post, seemed nervous that he had inadvertently posted to social media, “For half a second I thought I posted something,” he wrote.
“I see you thought you posted on your TL [public timeline] not DM [direct message]. S**t happens be careful,” the woman wrote back.
Weiner’s Twitter account has been deleted.
Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton’s top aides, has struggled with her husband’s social media exhibitionism in the past. Sexting ended his 12-year congressional career in 2011. Weiner had attempted to mount a comeback in a run for New York City mayor in 2013, and that, too, was thwarted by another sexting scandal.
Abedin and Weiner were the subject of a recent documentary, “Weiner,” which chronicled Weiner’s mayoral run, and it showcased the fallout from the scandal that ended his mayoral candidacy. Weiner recently claimed to the New York Times Magazine that Abedin had not approved extensive footage shown of her in the documentary, a fact disputed by the filmmakers, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg.
Republican nominee Donald Trump quickly attempted to make Abedin’s decision a campaign issue.
“Huma is making a very wise decision,” he said in a statement. “I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him. I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information.
Who knows what he learned and who he told? It’s just another example of Hillary Clinton’s bad judgment. It is possible that our country and its security have been greatly compromised by this.”