Weiner admits more lewd photos, says he won't quit race

NEW YORK - Anthony Weiner found himself caught in another sexting scandal Tuesday like the one that destroyed his congressional career, but stood side-by-side with his wife to say he won't drop out of the race for mayor of New York.

"This is entirely behind me," Weiner said at a news conference, hours after the gossip website The Dirty posted text messages and a crotch shot that it said the former congressman exchanged with a woman after he left office.

Weiner admitted sending a woman sexually explicit photos and messages and acknowledged the activity took place as recently as last summer, more than a year after he resigned from the House for the same sort of behavior with at least a half-dozen women.

But with his wife, Huma Abedin, smiling shyly an arm's length away, he said: "I want to bring my vision to the people of the city of New York. I hope they are willing to still continue to give me a second chance."

Weiner then turned the microphone over to his wife, who did not appear with him at the June 2011 news conference when he stepped down from Congress.

This time, Abedin reaffirmed her support for her husband and said the matter was "between us."

"I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and as we have said from the beginning, we are moving forward," said Abedin, a longtime adviser to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Abedin said her husband had made some "horrible mistakes both before he resigned from Congress and after" but insisted the two discussed "all of this" before he jumped into the mayor's race in May.

Several of his rivals for mayor immediately called on him to drop out of the race.

The 48-year-old Democrat has been near the top of most polls since his late entry into the campaign.

"I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out and today they have," said Weiner, who added that he was surprised that more had not previously surfaced.

After the news conference, Weiner went directly to a mayoral forum on gay men's issues and was warmly received.

The woman with whom he exchanged the messages was not identified by The Dirty. She told the website that she was 22 when she began chatting with Weiner on a social-networking site. She said their online relationship began last July and lasted six months.

She said that Weiner used the alias "Carlos Danger" for their exchanges but that she knew she was talking to the former congressman.

The woman said Weiner promised to help her get a job at the political website Politico and suggested meeting in a Chicago condo for a tryst.

The woman said she and Weiner also exchanged nude photos of themselves and engaged in phone sex. The Dirty ran a pixelated photo of what it said were Weiner's genitals.

"This was a bad situation for me because I really admired him. Even post scandal, I thought he was misunderstood. Until I got to know him," the woman was quoted as telling the website.

She said he asked her to destroy the evidence of their chats. She insisted that she never had sex with Weiner or received any payment from him.

She said their relationship "fizzled" in November. She said she last heard from him in April, when his intention to run for mayor was revealed in a New York Times Magazine profile.

Weiner said that not every allegation made by the woman was true but that he was not going to dispute specific claims.

Some voters have said they felt Weiner had atoned for his past and were willing to give him a second chance. But a third chance, for misbehavior after his resignation?

"I think he had a chance to redeem himself, and if he did it twice, he really betrayed the public's trust again," said Jeremy Green, a New Yorker. "I think he's past the point of no return for New Yorkers."