After three sexting scandals, it’s over finally between Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner. But she’s not the only one to declare his latest scandal was one too many.
Weiner, once a rising star in New York politics, has been a semi-regular contributor to multiple news outlets even after the 2013 sexting scandal that cratered his bid for mayor. After the New York Post revealed that Weiner had continued the extramarital sexting, at least one news outlet has cut off his contributor role.
Television channel NY1 said Weiner would not be reprising his contributor role on any of its shows.
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“Anthony Weiner is on indefinite leave from the station,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The New York Daily News, where Weiner contributed occasional opinion columns since 2008 and became a columnist in 2014, said enough is enough.
“[W]e won’t be running his columns in the future,” opinion editor Josh Greenman told The Daily Beast in an email.
Business Insider, where Weiner also contributes, said they had no formal relationship to dissolve, and didn’t address his future at the site.
“We are sorry to hear about the dissolution of the Weiners’ marriage, and we wish them all the best,” Business Insider said in a statement. “We do not a have formal contributor relationship with Mr. Weiner, but we and our readers always enjoy his columns.”
Weiner’s high-profile scandals have cost him at least two other jobs: He resigned his seat in Congress in 2011 after accidentally tweeting a crotch-shot meant for someone else other than his wife. (He first blamed it on hackers.) After a 2013 sexting spree as “Carlos Danger” with Sydney Leathers destroyed his nascent political comeback, he took on a role at public relations firm MWW. But after two months, the firm let him go, citing distractions from news outlets writing on him.
“The continuous noise from these parties has caused both Anthony and the MWW team to have to deal with many inflammatory, insulting and false stories,” MWW said in a September 2015 statement. “To Anthony’s credit, he understands that his presence here has created noise and distraction that just isn’t helpful, and at the same time, he has other interests that he wishes to pursue.”
Weiner pushed back, saying he hadn’t been consulted.
“I read the MWW statement when they sent it to staff,” Weiner told PoliticoNJ. “I was either not consulted or ignored on every part of this excellent summer adventure.”
Weiner was still living down his 2013 sexts in 2016, after documentarians released the feature film Weiner, which followed his mayoral campaign from comeback story to its scandalous end. While he treated the documentary with good humor in interviews, he also said he regretted the effect it had on his family, including Abedin, who is a high-ranking aide to Hillary Clinton.
“Obviously, it was a brutally difficult time for me and my family that I brought upon myself,” Weiner said in a January interview with NY1. “I’m not eager to relive it. So I haven’t seen the movie and even if it’s given free, I doubt I’ll be eager to watch it.”
Weiner’s latest fall from grace follows a Sunday night exposé by the New York Post, which revealed lewd conversations between Weiner and a woman who was not his wife—after he swore off sexting in two separate scandals in 2011 and 2013. The Post ran excerpts from a Twitter conversation between Weiner and an unnamed woman. In it, Weiner sends racy pictures, one of which featured his young son sleeping in the background. Weiner also told the woman he’d dreamed about her, and invited her to meet him in New York.
“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” Abedin said in a Monday statement. “Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy.”
