On Monday, New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner sat down with Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith for an interview that spanned topics from Snapchat to stop-and-frisk. Here are the four biggest takeaways:
- There may, in fact, be a Hillary 2016 in the works. Or not. Weiner wouldn’t say. When asked if he knew what the role of his wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s, would be in any upcoming Hillary 2016 operation, Weiner said that yes, he did know what her role would be but no, “I’m not going to tell you.” Which leaves us with the obvious question: Does that mean there is, in fact, a Hillary 2016 operation to speak of?
- Weiner likes the idea of Ray Kelly for Homeland Security chief, even though he was a major architect of stop-and-frisk. Anthony Weiner talked about New York City Police Commissioner’s involvement in the city’s stop-and-frisk policy, which was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge on Monday. He agreed that stop-and-frisk was “bad policy,” but said he did not think it should disqualify Kelly from consideration for the Homeland Security post, an idea raised by President Obama last month. “I wouldn’t keep him as my Police Commissioner,” Weiner said, “but he’s an excellent servant of the people…and I think Homeland Security, that would be a good fit for him.”
- “There are good bike lanes and there are bad bike lanes.” Weiner admitted joking to Mayor Mike Bloomberg that Weiner’s first press conference as mayor would be about “tearing out your f—ing bike lanes.” As for the city’s bike share program, he said there are pros and cons, but pulled out his personal CitiBike key to show his support.
- Weiner’s still in therapy. He told Smith, “apparently you never go out of therapy,” and added that he visits a therapist “from time to time.”
Candidate Weiner has fallen to the back of the Democratic pack since it emerged last month that he continued to sext women he met online even after resigning from Congress in 2011. A Quinnipiac poll from the end of July showed him in fourth place with 16%, and a new Siena poll showed that 80% of New Yorkers have an unfavorable opinion of him.
