Hannity confronts Weiner over explicit photos scandal
Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday asked former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) if he has changed after serving time in prison for sending sexually explicit pictures of himself to a minor.
“Have you changed?” Hannity asked Weiner on his prime-time show. “Are you a different person?”
“Well, I think so,” Weiner responded. “I don’t think anyone can go through that kind of experience — and I think this is probably true of people who have been through other types of adversity — I don’t think you go through that type of experience and don’t emerge changed. So, it’s fairly obvious.”
Hannity pressed the former congressman for a firmer answer.
“Either you know in your heart if you’ve changed or you know in your heart if you didn’t change,” Hannity said. “Do you — can you assure people, because you’re going to now try and draw in an audience and they’re going to want to know if you’ve changed or not. Have you changed?”
Weiner, who was making an appearance on the Fox News show to promote his new radio venture with former New York City Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, said he was not out to “persuade” anyone.
“They can judge for themselves,” Weiner said. “I’m not out to persuade you or anyone else that I’ve changed. I mean, I — I’m doing a radio show and people can call in and then ask me questions. We did one this past Saturday where people had an opportunity to call in, and where Curtis asked me a bunch of questions and I answered the best I can.”
Weiner’s appearance on Hannity’s show was his first on a cable news program since his incarceration.
The disgraced former congressman said his new radio venture is not intended to try “to make someone like me or someone to be persuaded of any particular outlook on me.”
“We’re going to have some conversations about things going on in New York City and other places and hopefully, people will tune in to the show,” he continued. “But I’m not terribly interested in trying to make them feel any differently about me.”
Weiner was forced to resign in 2011 after revelations surfaced that he had sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women.
In 2017, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison for sending explicit photos to a minor. He was released early in 2019.
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