Weiner rejects calls to quit NYC mayor's race

Paul Singer | USA TODAY

Former congressman Anthony Weiner on Wednesday rejected calls to drop out of the New York City mayor's race after his acknowledgment of another round of lewd online exchanges with women.

In an e-mail to supporters, Weiner said the campaign was "too important to give up because I've had embarrassing personal things become public." He told reporters Wednesday morning "I have posited this whole campaign on a bet, and that is that, at the end of the day, citizens are more interested in the challenge they face in their lives than in anything that I have done, embarrassing, in my past."

Weiner held a news conference Tuesday admitting that he continued to engage in inappropriate online chats even after he was forced to resign from Congress in 2011 because he had sent graphic messages — including lewd photos of himself — to women via Twitter.

But, with his wife by his side, Weiner said the bad behavior was behind him and he intends to stay in the mayor's race. A poll of likley voters released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University showed Weiner leading the other candidates in the race, but the poll was taken before Tuesday's press conference. Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, said it seems likely Weiner's numbers would drop, but there is no polling to show that yet.

Major New York newspapers have called for Weiner to quit the race.

Who is Carlos Danger? | USA NOW video Shannon Rae Green hosts USA NOW for July 24, 2013, taking a look at the latest controversy surrounding Anthony Weiner.

The New York Times wrote in an editorial, "The serially evasive Mr. Weiner should take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from cameras, off the Web and out of the race for mayor of New York City."

The Wall Street Journal said Weiner "ought to drop out of the New York City mayor's race simply because of what he's forced his wife to endure. Watching the elegant Huma Abedin stand next to her man Tuesday as he explained his latest sexually charged online exchanges was painful for a normal human being to watch. Mr. Weiner is not a normal human being."

The New York Daily News added in its own editorial, "He is not fit to lead America's premier city. Lacking the dignity and discipline that New York deserves in a mayor, Weiner must recognize that his demons have no place in City Hall."

"Weiner must also see that, having built his campaign on deception, he has badly damaged the process of selecting the city's next chief executive," the Daily News said.

Despite the outcry from newspapers, at least one Democrat who worked with Weiner in Congress said he shouldn't step aside.

Rep. Charles Rangel, dean of the New York congressional delegation, said Wednesday on MSNBC that "constitutionally, politically, anyone can run."

"But knowing New Yorkers ... this is not going to be a story by the time we get to September the 10th," Rangel said, referring to the date of the city's primary elections.

Weiner has certainly changed the subject. A Tuesday mayoral forum after Weiner's press conference received scant media coverage.

Public advocate Bill DeBlasio, a Democratic mayoral candidate who trails in the race, started a petition drive on his website Wednesday morning to get Weiner to drop out. The online petition proclaims "the sideshows of this election have gotten in the way of the debate we should be having." DeBlasio trailed Quinn and Weiner by double digits in recent polling.

Weiner's revelations also created a social media frenzy. The pseudonym "Carlos Danger" -- which Weiner allegedly used to communicate with one of the women -- became a top trending topic on Twitter, with more than 52,000 mentions from more than 37,000 Twitter users by Wednesday morning.

Contributing: Associated Press, Martha T. Moore and Rebecca Castagna

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