NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner admitted Thursday to having additional sexting partners since resigning from Congress in disgrace. This as the pressure on him to quit the race intensified.
“I don’t believe I had any more than three,” Weiner said. “People might want names and serial numbers and dates and texts, but someone else will have to provide it for you because I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to comment on the specifics of these things.”
Weiner spoke while volunteering at the Masbia of Flatbush soup kitchen in the Midwood section of Brooklyn.
A young woman, 23-year-old Sydney Leathers, provided it all to Inside Edition – the X-rated texts, the sexting pictures, the truth as she saw it, CBS 2’s Derricke Dennis reported Thursday.
“I felt like he was saying one thing to me and saying another thing to his wife, another thing on the campaign trail. I don’t know who the real Anthony Weiner is, I guess,” Leathers said.
“The exact wording was that he is an argumentative, perpetually horny middle-aged man. At the time, I was like, no you’re not. But, yes he is,” Leathers added.
Weiner also said he had bawdy exchanges with six to 10 women while in office.
“Remember something — these were people I never met. These were anonymous people on the Internet. The last woman herself was remaining anonymous, or wanted to,” he said. “I regret that anyone who was at the other end of this got dragged into this. Now they may choose for themselves to bring themselves out in the open, but I refuse to do that. I don’t think it’s fair to them.”
POLL: WEINER SLIPS TO SECOND PLACE
A Marist poll conducted after his latest sexting scandal was revealed shows the former congressman has slipped to second place.
Weiner has 16 percent of the vote, but trails City Council Speaker Christine Quinn by 9 points. Last month, when Marist last conducted a mayoral poll, Weiner had a five-point edge over Quinn.
In this latest survey, Bill de Blasio and Bill Thompson are tied for third with 14 percent, just two points behind Weiner.
The poll found 47 percent of Democrats want Weiner to stay in the race, while 43 percent want him to drop out.
“For many Democrats the latest revelations about Anthony Weiner are more of the same, only more so,” said Lee Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “Weiner has lost his lead and his negatives are at an all-time high.”
“I think voters were willing to give him a second chance, but this latest round of revelations clearly voters are reluctant to give him a third chance to try to convince them about his candidacy,” Miringoff told CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer.
The poll also found that 55 percent of Democratic voters have an unfavorable impression of the former congressman, a 19-point jump from last month’s poll. Three in 10 voters have a favorable opinion of Weiner, the poll found.
LINK: Full Poll Results (pdf)
Nearly half of those polled — 46 percent — say Weiner’s online sexual relationships will impact their vote.
When questioned about whether Weiner deserves a chance at redemption, 47 percent of those polled said they believe he deserves another chance in the public arena while 45 percent disagree and say he does not have the character to be mayor.
The poll was conducted by interviews on Wednesday and has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent.
WEINER DETERMINED TO PUT CHOICE TO VOTERS
Still, Weiner remains determined to continue his bid for New York City mayor despite growing calls for him to drop out of the race.
Weiner also took on Quinn, who has lambasted Weiner for his judgment.
“You can question my judgment. I didn’t lie to the people of the city of New York and say I wasn’t going to overturn term limits. I didn’t express the judgment to the people of the city of New York as part of my official job that I would not do something and then do it to give myself an additional term of office and the mayor an additional term,” Weiner said.