NEW YORK—Anthony Weiner Sunday took fire from top national Democratic advisers who joined calls for the sex scandal-plagued former congressman to get out of the New York City mayoral race.
NEW YORK—Anthony Weiner Sunday took fire from top national Democratic advisers who joined calls for the sex scandal-plagued former congressman to get out of the New York City mayoral race.
Criticism from former Obama adviser David Axelrod, former Bill Clinton spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers and some of his opponents came as Weiner confirmed reports that his campaign manager had resigned after a week of discord from a renewed sexting scandal.
Axelrod, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” derided Weiner as “waste of time and space.”
“I think he is delusional at this point,” Axelrod said. “He’s not going to be mayor of New York. He should go away.”
Myers, on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said Bill and Hillary Clinton would want Weiner out of the race. Weiner’s wife, Huma Abdebin, is a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential candidate.
“This isn’t a story that anybody, particularly the Clintons, is happy to see splashed all over the front pages and all over the news relentlessly,” Myers said. “And I think they, as much as anyone, would like to see this go away. If they could choose, they would certainly have Weiner get out of the race and Huma get on with her life.”
Neither of the Clintons has publicly spoken about Weiner’s campaign.
Weiner last week admitted to illicit online liaisons with as many as three women after he resigned from Congress in 2011 for similar behavior.
The Democrat confirmed at a Brownsville campaign stop Sunday that his campaign manager Danny Kedem had quit.
“Danny left the campaign. He did a remarkable job,” Weiner said outside Brownsville Community Baptist Church. He declined to discuss why Kedem quit or who would replace him.
“We haven’t made announcements about people we’re hiring,” Weiner said. “We’re not making announcements about people that leave.”
Kedem Sunday declined to comment. His departure leaves Weiner’s campaign with a skeletal staff of seven.
Weiner’s campaign schedule, too, had slimmed down.
He visited and spoke at one church Sunday, although his previous Sunday schedules have included stops at three or four churches, in addition to community events such as street fairs.
Weiner’s mayoral rivals renewed their criticism of his behavior and his campaign.
“When you see scandal after scandal like this, what it does is create even more distrust, and maybe even disgust, in government,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said on “Meet the Press.”