Weiner vows to remain in New York mayoral race

NEW YORK, July 29 (UPI) -- Former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., insisted he will stay in the New York mayoral race despite pressure from both parties to quit over more sexting revelations.

"We knew this would be a tough campaign," Weiner said at a campaign event in Brooklyn Sunday. "We have an amazing staff, but this isn't about the people working on the campaign. It's about the people we're campaigning for."

His comments came after The New York Times reported campaign manager Danny Kedem had resigned after Weiner admitted sending sexually explicit messages to a younger woman long after the same behavior forced him to leave Congress in 2011.

Weiner said his focus would be on issues important to New Yorker and pledged to discuss "ideas for the middle class and people struggling to make it every single day," The Hill reported Monday.

His admission cost him the lead in the race to become the Democratic nominee. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released after the latest round in the scandal indicated New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn with 25 percent support to Weiner's 16 percent.

The New York Post reported Bill and Hillary Clinton were irked by Weiner and his campaign comparing his Internet sexting -- and his wife Huma Abedin's forgiveness -- to the Clintons' scandal at the White House.

"The Clintons are upset with the comparisons that the Weiners seem to be encouraging -- that Huma is 'standing by her man' the way Hillary did with Bill, which is not what she in fact did," a top New York Democrat told the Post saod.

Weiner and campaign aides have referred to the Clintons as they try to convince Democrats that voters support Weiner despite his sexting just as they supported President Bill Clinton when he faced allegations of infidelity, the Post reported.