Hello and welcome to a very bizarre situation: Anthony Weiner, the New York congressman under fire for posting a salacious photograph of what appeared to be his crotch, is about to hold a press conference to address a brace of new claims that he has sent further lewd photographs and messages to women online.

The new claims undermine Weiner's first claims that he was the victim of a hacker, and denied sending the photograph – but would not say, when asked, whether or not the underwear photograph was of him.

The conservative news site Big Government and gossip site Radar Online both unveiled further allegations regarding what has become known as Weinergate – and both sites say they have evidence that the activity originated from accounts under Weiner's control, including a personal Facebook page and Yahoo account.

Big Government, founded by online provocateur Andrew Breitbart, posted several topless photographs of Weiner, which it said had been sent as recently as 20 May this year.

Now Weiner is holding a press conference at the Sheraton Hotel on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan.

This is getting more bizarre – while we are waiting for Weiner to speak, the journalist Andrew Breitbart – publisher of the site that exposed Weiner's first photograph – has taken the podium and is now answering questions.

Is this a joke? A set-up? A spoof? It seems not – Breitbart appears to have hijacked the press conference and Fox News are saying that the notice of the press conference came from Weiner's "friends".

Weiner appears, and makes a statement. He admits that he did send the original photograph of the bulging crotch via Twitter to a young woman in Seattle over the Memorial bank holiday weekend.

He's close to tears here.

Weiner now admits to having had online relationships of sorts "with six women over three years" – most before he got married last year (to an aide to Hillary Clinton at the State Department).

"I regret not being honest about this," says Weiner, who is now in tears.

This is like one of those unreal press conferences that they have in Hollywood movies.

Weiner says that he "never had a physical relationship at any time" with any of the women he was in contact with.

In his earlier appearance, Andrew Breitbart said he had an "X-rated" photograph that had been sent by Weiner but that he had held back from publishing it. A journalist asks Weiner if he sent such a photograph – and Weiner says he can't be sure.

If there is an "X-rated" photograph then that would probably spell the end of his political career.

Now Weiner is apologising to Breitbart for earlier suggestions that a hacker was responsible for the release of the first photograph.

Weiner said he has told the Democratic leadership, including Nancy Pelosi, who told him to tell the truth.

"Did you have phone sex with any of these women?" is one question. "I was never in the same room as any of these women," replies Weiner. "I'm not going to rebut or dispute anything that the women are saying." So that's a yes.

By way of background, news broke earlier today that ABC News was planning to show an interview with one of the women on the receiving end of Weiner's online affair:

An ABC News employee said that the network has conducted an interview with a woman, who says she received the photos from Mr Weiner, evidently the same photos Mr Breitbart obtained.

Before last week Weiner was a leading candidate to be the Democratic nominee for the New York City mayoralty when it was up in 2013. He's not now.

The political question will be whether he can hang on to his seat in the US House of Representatives. According to Salon, there wouldn't be any point in Weiner sticking around:

In other words, if he were to stay in Congress, Weiner would have to keep quiet and not run for mayor. Which would make him an incredibly bored man, since he's never actually put much effort into his congressional work. This why so many of his fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill and in New York have long viewed him with disdain: He's an ultra-ambitious showman with a knack for generating publicity but little interest in the nuts-and-bolts work that comes with serving in Congress.

Asked for his wife's reaction, Weiner says: "She told me that she loves me and that we'll get through this."

"Are you addicted to online sex?" is another question. Weiner replies: "To me it was almost a frivilous exchange."

Asked how he knew that the women involved weren't under-age, Weiner admits he couldn't know for sure, and says he took them at their word. " I don't know the exact ages of the women," says Weiner. "They were all adults to the best of my knowledge." Oh that's reassuring.

Weiner says he is not resigning, because he hasn't violated any rules of the House or his oath of office.

He repeats that he regrets what's happened. He is being completely open and taking every question thrown at him.

Will he remove his Twitter account? is another question. "There's nothing inherently wrong with social media, with these outlets. What I did was wrong," says Weiner.

One guy keeps shouting: "Will you shut down your Twitter account?"

Weiner says his congressional staff did not know about the circumstances. "They are another group of people I let down."

"Was there anything predatory about your behaviour?" asks another journalist. Sounds like they are expecting Chris Hansen to come out from behind the curtain.

"Do you have to support a lovechild," is another crazy question shouted out. Hmm, I'm guessing some "journalists" have got into the room. This is in danger of getting nasty. Weiner is looking around nervously.

"In the X-rated photos, were you fully erect?" is the last question, as Weiner decides to leave the stage. Probably the right move.

"That was quite a news conference," says Bret Baier on Fox News. You don't say.

Baier says he counted Weiner apologising 21 times in the course of the press conference.

Hilariously, Fox News are showing the original photo. "We're not doing this to titilate you," says the anchor Neil Cavuto. It's a grey pair of underwear with a bulge pixilated in the middle. Which hardly disguises anything. A grey bulge pixilated is still a grey bulge.

So, what's the reaction over on The Twitter, that cesspool of smut?

He says he had become "friends" with these women online. Terrible...stop while you're ahead, Weiner. FishbowlDC

FishbowlDC

This is from Betsy Rothstein at Fishbowl DC.

Now, let's watch Hardball – ah, for those of you in the UK that's the name of a popular US politics cable show. Seriously. It really is called Hardball.

The Associated Press has a take on Weiner's unzipping – and mentions how Weiner's sins include sending a photo entitled "Me and the pussys" sitting next to his cats. Classy!

After days of denials, a choked-up New York Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner confessed Monday that he tweeted a bulging-underpants photo of himself to a young woman and admitted to "inappropriate" exchanges with six women before and after getting married. He apologized for lying but said he would not resign. A conservative website that last week started a furor over a lewd photo sent from Weiner's Twitter account posted new photos Monday purportedly from a second woman who said she received shirtless shots of the congressman. At a late-afternoon news conference, Weiner called the initial underpants photo a joke and a "hugely regrettable mistake." "I haven't told the truth and have done things I deeply regret," he said. "I brought pain to people I care about." He later said: "This was a very dumb thing to do." BigGovernment.com, the website run by conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, said the new photo was in a cache of intimate online photographs, chats and email exchanges the woman claimed to have. The website did not identify the woman, and it could not immediately be determined if the photo was authentic. Another photo showed Weiner on a couch with two cats nearby. The website said Weiner sent the photo using the anthonyweiner(at)aol.com account with the subject line "Me and the pussys."

Local newspaper the New York Times (you may have heard of it) is now splashing on Weiner ("splashing" is a technical newspaper term, by the way) with a live blog of the press conference:

"I have made some terrible mistakes," Mr Weiner said. "I have not been honest." Mr Weiner said that after he sent the underwear photo on Twitter on May 27, "Once I realized I had posted it on Twitter I panicked, I took it down and said I'd been hacked." He added, "To be clear, the picture was of me, and I sent it." Mr Weiner said he had inappropriate communications with six women over the past three years as part of a "consensual exchange of emails" with the women. Most of the photos were sent before Mr. Weiner married Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, last year, Mr Weiner said. "Some, sadly, took place after," he said. Though Ms Abedin did not appear at Mr Weiner's side, he said, "I love my wife very much and we have no intention of splitting over up this. I love her very much and she loves me." When asked where she was, Mr Weiner replied, "She is not here." He added: "She made it clear that she thought that what I did was very dumb."

On Hardball, host Chris Matthews is in his element getting to talk about politics and smut. "This guy just blew himself up, will the collateral damage blow up Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the party?" asks Chris, looking serious.

Hey, here's the latest update from Reuters.

"Corrects spelling of Weiner in first paragraph," it says. Ha. Reuters doesn't know how to spell "weiner". And they think they are so clever.

Hats off to Weiner for not forcing his wife to "stand beside him".

"In two weeks if he's still in Congress, I'll be surprised," says Generic Democrat in a Suit on Hardball. Or is it the Republican? Who can tell.

ABC News is posting the photographs exchanged between Weiner and Meagan Broussard, a woman who started chatting with Weiner over Facebook and has given an interview to ABC.

According to ABC the photos are "explicit" – but they aren't, unless you work in a monastery.

Republicans are up in arms over Weinergate because of their own recent history. In February this year, New York congressman Chris Lee – a Republican – resigned after it was revealed he'd sent topless photos of himself to a woman he met on Craigslist (who passed them to Gawker).

The GOP then lost Lee's safe seat in a byelection two week ago, to their chagrin. So naturally they think Weiner should do the decent thing and step down as well. Fair enough.

It's funny watching the reliably Democrat "commentators" and bloggers in DC trying to explain why this is "much ado about nothing". In the UK, your political career would be over. And in most places in the US, probably, although many people are raising the examples of Bill Clinton and David Vitter in Weiner's defence, which is strange.

A response on Twitter from Gennette Cordova, the unfortunate Seattle student who was sent the original bulging underwear photo by Weiner a week last Friday.

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. Gennette N Cordova

GennetteC



She's an innocent party here, it can't be much fun.

ABC News is posting details of its interview with one of Weiner's correspondents, Meagan Broussard:

Broussard said she wanted to come forward now out of concerns for her own image as an aspiring nurse, and that of her 3-year-old daughter, should her identity be leaked online. More than a dozen photos sent by Broussard to anthonyweiner@aol.com and a second account she believed was Weiner's were obtained and licensed from her by ABC News. "I have my own life, my own things where I'm from and I just wanted to go ahead with them. I thought I could just be private about it, but there's no reason for me to hide," she said. "I didn't do anything wrong. I don't know him. I'm just putting my story out there before anyone else tries to." Broussard said she confided about her experiences with several close friends, including one with Republican political ties. The man, whom she declined to identify, encouraged her to share her story with Matt Drudge and conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart.

Weiner's future isn't looking good, based on the public reaction of the Democratic party hierarchy to Weiner's confession.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Steve Israel is the key here – and he's a tough cookie. So far, Israel has backed an ethics probe into Weiner's behaviour, and has told journalists:

Congressman Anthony Weiner engaged in a deep personal failure and inappropriate behavior that embarrassed himself, his family, and the House. Ultimately, Anthony and his constituents will make a judgment about his future. "To remove all remaining doubt about this situation, I agree with Leader Pelosi's request that the House Ethics Committee use its authority to begin an investigation.

Anthony and his constituents will make a judgment about his future? Translated into English: He's toast.

Weiner may as well resign now – Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House minority leader, has also called for an ethics committee investigation to see if House rules were broken.

Taxi for Mr Weiner.

Here's the text of Nancy Pelosi's statement:

Washington, DC – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today following a press conference by Congressman Anthony Weiner: "I am deeply disappointed and saddened about this situation; for Anthony's wife, Huma, his family, his staff and his constituents. "I am calling for an Ethics Committee investigation to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred."

Since this will keep the story running, and the House is dominated by the Republican majority, this in effect is exactly what Weiner wanted to avoid. Place your bets now about resignation, especially if the "X-rated" photo makes its inevitable appearance (and is indeed X-rated).

On the other hand: Charlie Rangel survived an ethics scandal (money, not sex) and a primary challenge.

Let's not forget: Weiner called a CNN journalist a "jackass" for asking questions about this last week.

For sober, serious analysis we turn to the comments made by you, the reader. There's this from Frances56: "The girthers were right!"

Andrew Breitbart's Big Government has an article by Meagan Broussard, one of the women that Weiner chatted with, explaining how it came about:

On April 20, I clicked on his Facebook page that I "liked" a video of Rep. Weiner addressing a gathering of construction workers in Washington, DC. I commented that it was "hot." That's the only way I came into contact with him at first. From there, he introduced himself to me over Facebook Chat. Within an hour, we were sending messages back and forth. It became an everyday correspondence.

She goes on:

Talking to him was sometimes a turn-off because he was so open and just so full of himself, as if he were looking, searching for something. I don't know if he loved telling me his personal business. I didn't want him to say more, didn't want to hear stories about sex with famous people. But I guess he needed to express himself.

OK, that's enough Weiner for one day. Here's Anthony Weiner's reaction to the news of an ethics investigation: "I welcome and will fully cooperate with an investigation by the House Ethics Committee."

What happens next? Well that depends but the probability of Anthony Weiner being the Democratic nominee for his current House seat in 2012 is slipping below 50%. The ethics committee has a wide remit and a hostile Republican majority. Then there's the "X-rated" photo still out in the wild, and the prospect of Weiner's other Facebook "friends" coming forward. It's not looking good.

Thanks for reading.