Anthony Weiner
Anthony David Weiner is an American politician and sex offender from the state of New York. A Democrat, Weiner has served on the New York City Council and in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is known for his involvement in multiple sex scandals, one of which led to his resignation from the House and another of which became an issue in the 2016 United States presidential election and led to Weiner's eventual incarceration.
After graduating from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in 1985, Weiner joined the staff of then-U.S. Representative Chuck Schumer. In 1991, he was elected to represent the 48th district on the New York City Council. At age 27, Weiner became the youngest New York City councilmember in history. He served on the City Council from 1992 to 1998. Weiner was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from in 1998 and served in the House from 1999 until his resignation in 2011. Weiner also ran for mayor of New York City in 2005 and 2013, losing in the Democratic primary both times.
Weiner resigned from the House in June 2011 after it was revealed that he had sent sexually suggestive photos of himself to various women. A second sexting scandal engulfed his 2013 campaign for New York City mayor. In September 2016, claims were published that Weiner had engaged in sexting with a 15-year-old girl from North Carolina; devices owned by Weiner were seized as part of an investigation into this incident. Information pertinent to the Hillary Clinton email controversy was discovered on Weiner's laptop, leading FBI Director James Comey to reopen his investigation into Clinton days before Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump. Weiner later pleaded guilty to transferring obscene material to a minor and served more than a year in federal prison.
Weiner ran for New York City Council in the 2nd district in 2025, finishing in fourth place in the Democratic primary and losing to Harvey Epstein.
Early life, education, and early career
Weiner was born in Brooklyn, New York. He is the middle son of Mort Weiner, a lawyer, and his wife, Frances, a public high school math teacher. Weiner is Jewish. He and his family lived for a time in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. Weiner attended elementary school at P.S. 39 The Henry Bristow School.Weiner took the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test, an examination used to determine admission to all but one of New York City's specialized high schools, and was admitted to Brooklyn Technical High School, from which he graduated in 1981. He attended the State University of New York at Plattsburgh and spent his junior year as an exchange student at the College of William & Mary, where he was friends with future comic and political commentator Jon Stewart. Weiner's interests turned towards politics; he became active in student government and was named most effective student senator.
After he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1985, Weiner joined the staff of then–United States Representative and current Senator Charles Schumer. He worked in Schumer's Washington, D.C. office for three years, then transferred to the district office in Brooklyn in 1988, when Schumer encouraged him to become involved in local politics.
New York City Council (1992–1998)
After working for Schumer for six years, Weiner got his first chance at political office in 1991 when the New York City Council was expanded from 35 to 51 seats. Weiner was considered a long-shot because he faced strong competition in the Democratic primary elections from two well-connected candidates. Weiner narrowly won the primary, besting Michael Garson by slightly more than 200 votes. Controversy ensued in the last weeks of the campaign after Weiner's campaign anonymously spread leaflets around the district that had alleged ties between Cohen and the so-called "Jackson-Dinkins agenda"; the leaflets referred to the Crown Heights riots earlier in the year, after which white residents had seen Jesse Jackson, who became notorious for his earlier remarks about New York City as "Hymietown", and then-mayor David Dinkins as having been beholden to the predominantly African-American rioters and therefore endangering whites. Weiner prevailed in the general election.Weiner began serving on the City Council when he was 27 years of age, making him the youngest city councilmember in history. Weiner served on the City Council from 1992 to 1998. During his City Council tenure, Weiner initiated programs to address quality of life concerns. He also started a program to put at-risk and troubled teens to work cleaning up graffiti, and he backed development plans that helped revive the historic Sheepshead Bay area.
U.S. House of Representatives (1999–2011)
In 1998, Weiner ran for Congress from New York's 9th congressional district. The heavily Democratic 9th district was represented by Weiner's mentor, Chuck Schumer, who opted to run for the U.S. Senate that year and prevailed. Weiner narrowly won the Democratic primary election and won by a wide margin in the general election. He went on to serve in the House of Representatives until 2011, when he resigned in the midst of a sexting scandal. A special election was held on September 13, 2011 to replace him; Republican businessman Bob Turner defeated Democrat David Weprin in that election.Domestic issues
Weiner was critical of the 2009 Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the Affordable Care Act, which prohibited the use of taxpayer funds for abortion. Weiner called the amendment "unnecessary and divisive" and stated that it would prevent health insurers from offering abortion coverage regardless of whether an individual used federal funds to purchase an insurance plan.In April 2008, Weiner created the bi-partisan Congressional Middle Class Caucus. In June 2008, Weiner sponsored a bill to increase the number of O-visas available to foreign fashion models, arguing that it would help boost the fashion industry in New York City. He criticized UN diplomats for failing to pay parking tickets in New York City, claiming foreign nations owed $18,000,000 to the city.
During the health care reform debates of 2009, Weiner advocated for a bill called the United States National Health Care Act, which would have expanded Medicare to all Americans, regardless of age. He remarked that while 4% of Medicare funds go to overhead, private insurers put 30% of their customer's money into profits and overhead instead of into health care. In late July 2009, he secured a full House floor vote for single payer health care in exchange for not amending America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 in committee mark-up with a single-payer plan.
When a public health insurance option was being considered as part of America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, Weiner said that it would help reduce costs, and he set up a website to push for the option. He attracted widespread attention when described the Republican Party as "a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry, teaming up with a small group of Democrats to try to protect that industry". In February 2010, he proclaimed to Congress that "every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry."
Weiner was the chief sponsor of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009, which made the selling of tobacco in violation of any state tax law a federal crime, and effectively ended Internet tobacco smuggling by stopping shipments of cigarettes through the United States Postal Service. He claimed, "This new law will give states and localities a major revenue boost by cracking down on the illegal sale of tobacco", and added that "Every day we delay is another day that New York loses significant amounts of tax revenue and kids have easy access to tobacco products sold over the Internet."
On July 29, 2010, Weiner criticized Republicans for opposing the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would provide for funds for sick first responders to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. In a speech on the floor of the House, he accused Republicans of hiding behind procedural questions as an excuse to vote against the bill.
In response to pressure from Weiner, YouTube removed some of Anwar al-Awlaki's inflammatory videos from its website in November 2010. Weiner voted against the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. As a prominent Democratic opponent of the tax cut package passed by Congress, Weiner said Republicans had gotten the better of President Barack Obama in the negotiations to reach an agreement on the $858 billion deal and said the Republicans turned out to be "better poker players" than Obama.
In 2002, Weiner voiced strong criticism of the removal of the World Trade Center debris without investigating it to determine the causes of the collapses of Tower 1, 2 and 7.
Foreign policy
In 2002, Weiner voted to give President George W. Bush the authority to use military force against Iraq. In May 2006, Weiner attempted to bar the Palestinian delegation from entering the United Nations. He added that the delegation "should start packing their little Palestinian terrorist bags", and went on to claim that Human Rights Watch, The New York Times, and Amnesty International are all biased against Israel.On July 29, 2007, Weiner and Rep. Jerrold Nadler objected to a $20-billion arms deal that the Bush administration negotiated with Saudi Arabia because they didn't want to provide "sophisticated weapons to a country that they believe has not done enough to stop terrorism", noting that 15 of the 19 hijackers in the September 11 attacks were Saudis. Weiner made the announcement outside of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Washington, D.C., stating, "We need to send a crystal clear message to the Saudi Arabian government that their tacit approval of terrorism can't go unpunished." The two intended to use a provision of the Arms Export Control Act to review the deal and pass a Joint Resolution of Disapproval.
Weiner and several other members of Congress later criticized the Obama administration's proposal to sell over $60 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia. He said: "Saudi Arabia is not deserving of our aid, and by arming them with advanced American weaponry we are sending the wrong message", and described Saudi Arabia as having a "history of financing terrorism" and teaching "hatred of Christians and Jews" to its schoolchildren.