Clinton Aide Huma Abedin Announces Separation From Anthony Weiner In Advance Of Showtime’s ‘Weiner’ Premiere
“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” Hillary Clinton’s closest aide Huma Abedin said in a statement this morning, taking top spot in the TV news cycle. That came hours after the New York Post published a front-page story about her husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner, that includes another crotch shot he allegedly sent another woman in July 2015, in which he is seen in bed next to his and Abedin’s young son, who is asleep in the photo.
“Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time I ask for respect for our privacy,” Abedin added in a remark maybe better directed to her husband.
A flurry of “here we go again” segments on TV news programs resulted, in which some reporters insisted the couple has been estranged for nearly a year. No tweet yet from Donald Trump on the latest development; on the campaign trail Trump previously has referenced Weiner as a “pervert,” CNN noted.
Abedin’s statement comes weeks before Showtime is set to debut the documentary Weiner, about her husband’s attempted career comeback — two years after resigning from Congress when he accidentally tweeted out into the world a picture of his crotch. That comeback mayoral race ended badly, weeks before the primary election, when a new batch of un-mayoral photos emerged that Weiner had tweeted as “Carlos Danger.”
At last month’s TCA, TV critics marveled that Weiner filmmakers Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman got Abedin to participate in that exercise in personal humiliation.
Today’s formal separation announcement by Abedin also comes one month after Weiner was a guest on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, to demonstrate why politicians embroiled in sexting scandals should not try comedy. Appearing on the first night of The Late Show’s live DNC coverage at which Hillary Clinton was expected to be anointed Dem nominee for POTUS, Abedin’s husband took his seat onstage, looked up at the cheap seats in the Ed Sullivan Theater and asked, “Where’s the forced-out-of-office-by-scandal [delegation]?”
“I thought I’d pierce the whole thing,” Weiner said.
“Good. What did you pierce it with?” Colbert shot back.
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