Friends and allies of Anthony Weiner are urging the disgraced ex-congressman to stage a political comeback.
The former pol raised eyebrows after he attended the Inner Circle charity dinner with his estranged wife Huma Abedin last Saturday.
“He has been encouraged to run for office by me and others … When politics is in your blood as it is in his, I don’t think you ever rule it out,” said Curtis Sliwa, who hosts “The Left Versus The Right” with Weiner on 77 WABC radio.
“To be the moderate Democrat, to be what this city needs now to take it back from AOC. He knows the moderate path to save the city.
“There’s always going to be misgivings lingering. That will never go away,” Sliwa said of Weiner’s sordid past. “He has to constantly speak out on the subject of his problems and how you can make amends for that. You can become an example. That’s the only way.”
Sliwa had pushed Weiner to throw his name into the brutal lower Manhattan congressional Democratic primary in 2022, which ultimately went to Levi Strauss heir and parking ticket scofflaw Dan Goldman.
Weiner, 58, resigned from Congress in 2011 after it emerged he had sent lewd photos to multiple women. In 2013 he attempted a run for mayor, which he aborted after it was discovered he had continued his illicit sexting after leaving office.
In 2017 he was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for sexting a 15-year-old girl. Upon his release in 2019 he was forced to register as a sex offender.
Since 2019, Weiner has held a number of jobs including as a crisis PR man and as CEO of a Brooklyn glass company. He got his radio gig in February 2022.
In his radio perch, Weiner has also racked up powerful allies, including 77 WABC’s billionaire owner John Catsimatidis — who donated thousands of dollars to Weiner’s past campaigns — and expressed openness to the idea of Weiner’s return to civic life.
“He’s a friend. So I always support friends,” Catsimatidis said when pressed about how far he would go if Weiner threw himself into a local race.
Weiner has said he “probably” would have beaten Mayor de Blasio but for the scandal that engulfed his mayoral campaign in 2013 — and more than a few Democrats privately wish he did.
“It’s likely we wouldn’t have the financial crisis we are starting to experience. It is likely we would have a more robust infrastructure protection program. We would likely not have the crime wave we have,” said veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf.
“De Blasio was a weasel and Anthony Weiner would have been a mayor.”
