Obama: If I Were Weiner, I Would Resign

The pressure on Congressman Anthony Weiner to step down continues to mount:

In an exclusive interview with TODAY’s Ann Curry, President Barack Obama said that if he were Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner right now, he would resign in the wake of the scandal in which Weiner admitted to sending explicit photos of himself to women online.

“I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign,” Obama told Curry.

Weiner has been the talk of the nation since he was caught sending lewd photos of himself to various women on multiple social media platforms, prompting the head of the Democratic National Party to call for him to step down and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to demand an ethics committee investigation.

“When you get to the point where, because of various personal distractions, you can’t serve as effectively as you need to, at the time when people are worrying about jobs, and their mortgages, and paying the bills — then you should probably step back,” Obama said.

Video:

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Weiner remains in rehab somewhere, and some reports say that he’s told fellow Democrats that he wanted to talk to his wife in person before making a decision about resigning. She returns to the country on Wednesday from an overseas trip with Hillary Clinton. Whether he’ll make a decision after that remains to be seen.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. James Joyner says:

    If Obama were the sort of man who took pictures of his junk and sent them to random women on Twitter, he’d likely have a different calculus.

  2. He also likely wouldn’t be President.

    I think.

  3. Bill Jempty says:

    he’d likely have a different calculus.

    That’s why I will stick to trigonometry.

  4. Neil Hudelson says:

    While Obama does not strike me as philanderer in any sense, whenever I see someone say “If it were me…” I cringe. Be careful what you wish for.

  5. Gustopher says:

    Hillary Clinton and Mrs. Wiener are in Europe together? Oy. I expect a conversation like “when my husband humiliated our entire family in front of the whole country…”

  6. mantis says:

    Hillary Clinton and Mrs. Wiener are in Europe together?

    They’ve been friends and colleagues for years. Back in 2007- 2008 the wingnuts were pushing the idea that they were secret lesbian lovers (of course).

  7. mantis says:

    Oh, and it’s not Mrs. Wiener. She kept her name, Huma Abedin. She’s Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary.