Former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said on Tuesday evening that he would not let GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump turn his wife, Huma Abedin, into a 2016 campaign issue.
{mosads}“I think the idea to take someone who’s served in government for 20 years and impugn her in that way is outrageous,” Weiner said on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” program.
“I mean, he wants to make me a campaign issue,” he said. “I’m not going to indulge that.”
“He didn’t offer any evidence of this or information about this,” Weiner added of Trump’s criticism of his spouse, a long-time aide for Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.
“He just impugned someone who has worked in government for a long time and anyone who’s ever worked with her knows that not only is she eminently qualified, but she does her job with skill and with grace and has done it for a very long time making enormous sacrifices for our country.”
Trump reportedly mocked Abedin and Weiner during a campaign stop last week in Boston.
“And who is Huma married to?” Trump asked after repeatedly pronouncing her name “Ooma.”
“One of the great sleazebags of our time — Anthony Weiner,” he said. “She’s married to Anthony Weiner, who’s a perv.”
“And he was a bad guy then — it turns out that he was a really bad guy,” Trump added of Weiner’s tenure in Congress.
Weiner resigned from the House in 2011 after it emerged he had sent sexually suggestive text messages to multiple women. He then entered New York City’s 2013 mayoral race, only to see a second round of sexting undermine his campaign.