Weiner, trying to move forward, assures: "I'm fine"
Anthony Weiner is "fine," he assured reporters Wednesday, one day after the Democratic mayoral candidate and disgraced former congressman begged New Yorkers to give him "another chance" following revelations of yet another wave of lewd text messages and photos.
"This is not about me," Weiner told a press gaggle staked out in front of his New York City home. "This is about the fact that the middle class, and the people struggling to make it in this city - they can't find housing they can afford, jobs with benefits... this is what I've tried to talk about every single day.
"...I'm fine," he went on. "I've got an amazing wife and child upstairs. I've got a comfortable life."
In 2011, then-Rep. Weiner accidentally posted a photo of his crotch publicly on Twitter. After initially claiming he'd been hacked, the New York Democrat ultimately admitted to having "inappropriate" online relationships with several women and resigned. On Tuesday, an unidentified woman disclosed explicit online messages she said Weiner sent her in the months after his resignation.
Asked by one reporter Wednesday whether to expect more inappropriate content to come out, Weiner would only say: "I've said to you and to others since the beginning that I fully expected things to come out, and hear that they have. But they're about my past, and I think citizens understand that."
Weiner pointed out that he himself predicted the media onslaught from the get-go. Though he called his past behavior "legitimate for people to discuss," he argued there's been a "disconnect" between media focus and what the general public wants: "Many of you focused on other things," he told the reporters. "But when people talk to me on the street, they don't want to talk about something in my past, they want to talk about their future."
Whether his character will play into his chances, Weiner continued, is "for citizens to decide."
"Look - I know people who may well never conceive of voting for me because of the things that are in my past. I get that. And even for those people, I want them to hear about my ideas," he said. "I have posited this whole campaign on a bet: And that is, at the end of the day, citizens are more interested in the challenge they face in their lives than anything that I have done embarrassing in my past."
A Quinnipiac University poll that was taken through Tuesday, nabbing the very top of potential fallout from the newest report, shows Weiner still leading in the Democratic primary with 26 percent over former New York City Comptroller William Thompson's 20 percent and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's 22 percent.
To avoid a runoff, though, Weiner would have to secure at least 50 percent in the Sept. 10 primary - a lofty ambition for someone currently polling at about half that. In a runoff scenario, Weiner doesn't fare as well, showing 41 percent to Thompson's 52 percent, and a tie with Quinn.
