Ellison is the first to back Weiner's bid for mayor. | AP Photos Weiner picks up first endorsement

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) on Thursday endorsed Anthony Weiner for mayor of New York City.

“Anthony’s a good guy in my opinion. Now, he should’ve came clean once he got busted, you know, and I’m sorry he didn’t do that – but he’s sorry he didn’t do that and his [wife Huma Abedin’s] sorry he didn’t do that,” Ellison said on Current TV to host Bill Press.


“Look man, nobody here is perfect. Anthony was a great congressman in my opinion, and he’s dealt with his issues and everybody has issues. So I’d love to see Anthony Weiner be mayor of New York. I hereby endorse him.”

Weiner and Abedin, an aide to Hillary Clinton, gave a wide-ranging interviews to The New York Times Magazine, which was published Wednesday, and Weiner says he’s considering a mayoral bid this year. Weiner, a former Democratic congressman from New York, resigned from Congress in 2011 following the fallout from a scandal in which he accidentally tweeted a lewd photograph of himself.

( PHOTOS: Scandal pols: Where are they now?)

Ellison said on Current TV that while his endorsement is “unsolicited,” he still thinks Weiner is an “awesome guy.”

“I heard somebody say, ‘Weiner’s angry.’ But he’s not angry – he’s passionate. He believes in what he’s doing. he was so into making sure people got a chance to go to a doctor,” Ellison told Press. “He was an indispensable voice on the issue of health care. And I just – you know, he and I had some disagreements on some Middle East stuff, but he was always congenial in terms of discussing it. But I like Anthony Weiner a lot. And I think his wife is an awesome person. He would do the city of New York a lot of good, I think.”