Weiner gives reporters the finger, loses election …

Voters slam Weiner

NEW YORK (AP) — It was perhaps a fitting end to an Anthony Weiner mayoral run that couldn’t seem to escape a sexting scandal.
Outside a “victory” party where supporters mourned a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Democratic primary, cameras were crowded around Sydney Leathers, the 23-year-old woman whose sexting with the former congressman brought his once-high-flying campaign to a screeching halt.
“Why not be here?” Leathers asked reporters. “I’m kind of the reason he’s losing. So, might as well show up.”
To avoid an embarrassing confrontation, Weiner’s staff sneaked him into his own event through a side entrance. His wife, Huma Abedin, who stood by his side at the height of the scandal, was nowhere to be seen.
And after a concession speech in which he got choked up as he spoke of family, he was caught by a photographer giving an obscene gesture to reporters as he was driven away.
Leathers, who has launched a porn career since the scandal broke, said Weiner needed “to stop being an embarrassment to the city of New York. He’s going to continue this behavior. If it’s not going to be me, it’s going to be some other girl.”
For his part, Weiner acknowledged in his at-times emotional concession speech that he was an “imperfect messenger.”
Weiner had been in political exile since he resigned from Congress in 2011 for sending women lewd online messages and pictures. He got into the mayor’s race in May, and aside from a few dust-ups with hecklers, was largely well-received at first, holding the lead for most of June and July.
But after an obscure gossip website named The Dirty released X-rated exchanges between Weiner and Leathers that took place well after the candidate quit the House of Representatives, Weiner –and his sexting pseudonym, Carlos Danger, once again became a national punchline.
With 96 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Weiner was far behind in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary, with about 5 percent of the vote.