House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called on embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner to resign a day after the New York Democrat admitted to having sexually charged online relationships with six women, none of whom are his wife.
“I don’t condone his activity. And I think he should resign,” Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said after an event in his district Tuesday, according to the Daily Progress.
Cantor is the first leader in either party to call for Weiner to step down. Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are pushing for an ethics investigation in the Weiner scandal. Pelosi sent a letter to the committee on Tuesday asking for the initiation of a probe.
Weiner lied to the public for more than a week — several times in sit-down interviews with television news programs — after he was accused of posting to the Internet a picture of himself in a bulging pair of gray boxer-briefs. Weiner insisted his account had been hacked. But after sexually suggestive correspondence and more photographs of him surfaced — including bare-chested shots — Weiner took to the podium at a hastily assembled New York press conference to own up to his actions.
Weiner said publicly he would not resign, and delivered the same message to Pelosi in private conversation.
As such, Democratic leaders have not called on him to step down from an office that they can’t remove him from.
But Cantor upped the pressure on Weiner Tuesday, breaking with Republican leaders who preferred to stand out of the way as Democrats tried to untangle the mess. While GOP leaders had remained silent on the matter, the party machinery has been working to stick Weiner’s troubles to other Democrats.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has pointed out which politically vulnerable Democratic incumbents are recipients of Weiner campaign cash, and one, Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) already has said she dump her Weiner contributions.
