Anthony Weiner may have just destroyed his mayoral campaign
New sexts have emerged — sent under the instantly infamous username Carlos Danger
UPDATE: In a press conference Tuesday evening, Anthony Weiner confirmed that he continued to have online relationships with women after his resignation from Congress in 2011. He said that in the "continuum of the resignation" he could not pinpoint exactly when he stopped messaging random women on the internet, but that it was likely some time last summer.
"Some of these things happened before my resignation, some of them happened after," he said.
"That was also the time that my wife and I were working through some things in our marriage," he added.
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In a statement earlier in the day, he confirmed that newly leaked transcripts and graphic sexts containing images of his penis were authentic, but remained vague on the details.
Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, also spoke in the press conference, saying it "took a lot of work, and a whole lot of therapy, to get to a place where I could forgive him." Weiner said Abedin knew about all of his online relationships when they discussed whether he should run for mayor.
Several of Weiner's opponents have now called for him to drop out of the mayor's race.
ORIGINAL STORY: New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D) admitted Tuesday that newly leaked images and chat logs did in fact reveal another of his secret online relationships, though he claimed there were inaccuracies in the narrative surrounding them.
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An online gossip site posted explicit images and screenshots earlier in the day purportedly showing Weiner's flirtatious relationship with a woman who is not his wife. The relationship allegedly occurred after Weiner famously left Congress for tweeting photos of his crotch, with the former lawmaker adopting the unfortunate moniker "Carlos Danger" in some correspondence to shield his identity.
Weiner resigned from office in 2011 amid a sexting scandal, and said at the time that more details of his philandering could ultimately come out. He reiterated that point in an apologetic statement Tuesday, while suggesting, without explicitly saying so, that these messages were from the same time period as the ones that ended his career in Washington.
"I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have," he said in a statement. "As I have said in the past, these things that I did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through challenges in our marriage that extended past my resignation from Congress."
"While some things that have been posted today are true and some are not, there is no question that what I did was wrong," he added. "This behavior is behind me."
So how will the new revelation impact Weiner's attempted political redemption in the New York City mayor's race?
The sexting story played heavily when Weiner began his comeback tour earlier this year. Yet even then, it seemed like voters just didn't care much anymore.
Weiner has led or placed second in every poll of the mayor's race since he formally launched his campaign. Much of that may have to do with name recognition, but still, it shows a healthy percentage of voters are willing to see past Weiner's well-documented infidelity.
The latest revelation will likely come down to timing, and whether this relationship actually did occur, as is alleged, after Weiner left office.
Weiner made it clear when he resigned that more information was still out there. If the newly posted chats are indeed from that time, then he could make the case that this is old news he's already profusely and publicly apologized for.
However, it's not clear at all that these chats came from the same period. Though Weiner said some reported details of the relationship were not true, he did not directly address whether the alleged timeline was accurate.
The Dirty, which broke the new leaks, insists the chats are from 2012, and has stood by the story. A timeline posted on the site said Weiner and the anonymous woman started talking in July 2012.
"I think it's important to reiterate the fact that all of this happened with him after his first scandal," the anonymous woman told The Dirty, "so all of his campaign promises about being a changed man are absolute lies.”
Screenshots of the chats don't list a date stamp, making it impossible to independently confirm when they were sent.
Weiner's competition, at least, has already seized on the news to insist that he drop out already.
UPDATE: Weiner has called a press conference to address the allegations. Watch it live here:
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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.
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