US Representative Anthony Weiner has tearfully admitted having a number of inappropriate relationships with women over the internet, saying he was deeply ashamed but would not resign.
Mr Weiner admitted to inappropriate internet and telephone conversations with six women but said none of them developed into a physical relationship.
‘I'm deeply regretting what I have done and I'm not resigning,’ Mr Weiner, who had been seen as a rising star among Democrats, told a news conference while wiping away tears as he apologised for his actions and for lying in the cover-up.
The New York Democrat, a leading liberal voice in the US House of Representatives, had been expected to run for mayor of New York City in 2013.
The scandal began more than a week ago when Weiner denied tweeting a photo of a man's bulging boxer shorts to a 21-year-old female student in Washington state, insisting his account had been hacked.
‘I tweeted a photograph of myself that I intended as a direct message as part of a joke to a woman in Seattle,’ he told reporters on Monday.
‘Once I realised I had posted it to Twitter, I panicked. I took it down and said that I had been hacked. I then continued to stick to that story, which was a hugely regrettable mistake,’ he said.
‘The picture was of me, and I sent it.’
Calling his actions ‘very dumb’ and ‘destructive,’ he stressed he did not have sex with any of the women.
Mr Weiner is married to Huma Abedin, a long-time aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The couple was married in a ceremony officiated by former US President Bill Clinton.
‘I love my wife very much and we have no intention of splitting up over this,’ he said.
Mr Weiner said his affairs were conducted over several years on Twitter, Facebook, email and by phone with women he met online, primarily on Facebook.
He said he sent the women explicit pictures of himself but broke no law, mostly used his home computer and never used his congressional mobile device.
Earlier this year, two other members of Congress, both Republicans, stepped down amid scandal. John Ensign resigned from the US Senate amid an ethics committee probe into his extramarital affair with a campaign aide.
And US Representative Chris Lee resigned after he posted a shirtless photo of himself online.
Yesterday, more pictures of Mr Weiner, this time of him naked from the waist up sitting at his desk, surfaced online.
He characterised his relationships with the women as ‘a frivolous thing’ and admitted that the affairs were conducted both before and since he was married.
