which the former congressman says are not new. weiner resigned from congress in june 2011 after having admitted to having inappropriate conversations with women online. stay with us. chris matthews and "hardball" is next. weiner. again. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews down in washington. let me start tonight with a new york story. it's the latest on new york mayor candidate anthony weiner and the latest is that there is a latest. 0 could it be that having resigned from the u.s. congress when he was discovered to have sexted indecent pictures of himself nationwide continued to send out such pictures even after his public exposure and political banishment? tonight the incredible of

someone with a problem that apparently hasn't gone away that even the city that never sleeps is willing to put in gracie mansion. could it be new york new york in fact the town so nice they named it twice is just too nice for the escapades of anthony weiner. we're awaiting him to begin a news conference tonight. war joined by nbc's kelly o'donnell. it seems the best question you could ask mr. weiner tonight, is this behavior, this sexting of pictures after yourself something you did after you were exposed or something that happened before you were exposed and resigned from congress? >> and chris, that's really an essential question because the hugh hilliation that he suffered publicly in 2011 after admitting then exchanges with var women he did not meet but had relationships online, he said he was going to seek treatment. he apologized to his wife and ultimately forced from congress. and he left everyone with the impression that that misbehavior was something that he was able to put behind him.

so fast forward two years later and it seems the fall from grace is on rewind. it was humiliating then. it seems to be more compounded now. on the internet today, there was very graphic exchanges that were printed on the internet and photos and all of that kind of stuff. you can let your mind run wild. and under pressure to respond, anthony weiner put out a paragraph long statement. in it he says i said that other texts and photos were likely to come out. he had previously acknowledged that and today they have. as i've said in the past these things i did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through challenges in our marriage that extended past my resignation from congress. so you can get into that and look cryptically and say is he signaling then perhaps this is did go on beyond the time of his resignation. that's what the woman unnamed in these online descriptions says did happen. she says this was as recent as

2012. he of course, has been in the race for mayor for a period of months now. about seven weeks from now, new york city democratic voters will decide who will be their mayoral pick. one of the other candidates, it's a wide field is already calling for anthony weiner to step aside to get out of the race saying enough is enough. now, when he this he told us today he was going to have this news conference we're waiting for, they updated his schedule and did include his previously planned evening event. perhaps that means he will stay on. if you remember, in congress, he did not want to resign and was really pushed by even his closest friends in the democratic party. he did not believe he would need to step aside. ultimately came to that conclusion. that fueled his desire to get back into public life. his wife human malabba din has been on the campaign trail with him a little bit. they have a young son. she appears in his campaign vool saying she believes no one would

work harder for new york city than anthony. this is astonishing to having very similar accusations leveled against the former congressman and what was embarrassing then seems even far more human millating now because of the graphic nature of the exchanges with the woman and the photos. we can't say for certain that all that is out there on the internet is accurate. but by weiner saying some of what is out there is in fact true it, leaves us with a very difficult task of sorting it out. he is acknowledging that some of what came out today is true and so those who are seen it or read about it or will hear about it, it will definitely make people wonder in new york when did this stop, has it stopped, it raises enormous questions about anthony weiner's judgment. chris? >> it's always this sort of slow disclosure, this put out a little bit when you have to, luke russert asked him last time around directly and he lied to him. he was covering up then.

it seems to me me ob fis indicating this time leaving it open to interpretation whether this behavior is new and occurred since his embarrassment before or if something was packed into the past. i guess my hunch is since he's already obfuscating today, he's going to continue to do it tonight. it's going to be a very unsatisfying press conference because he'll get asked has this happened since your embarrassment and he'll find some way of answering without answering >> at the moment, he is ahead in the most recent poll among democrats by a little bit against christine quinn, the city council leader there in new york. and there are several other candidates, and if you split the polling, anthony weiner has been ahead. in his political mind, he may be thinking he can weather this. he asked for forgiveness if he can convince new york voters this is in the past, maybe he can get through. the big question is, the drip, drip, drip factor here, new indications of this problem may just simply turn people off in such a way they're not willing to take that chance. so the summer of redemption is

not turning out that way, at leaf for now for anthony weiner. >> thank you very much for that reporting. steve kornacki is part of our msnbc family host of "up weekend." and joan walsh is the editor of salon and msnbc analyst. steve, this thing, it's has astounded me that new yorkers are willing to accept a pretty low level of behavior by their potential mayor here. i don't know whether the numbers will hold but he's been very competitive with christine quinn, the speaker of the city council all through this mess. is this too much for new york? >> i mean first are of all, part of the reason he's been so competitive, he's been eb at selling the redemption narrative that he went all this turmoil a few years ago. he got help. he's emerged as a better person and one of the threats obviously is that it disrupts that

narrative. wait a minute, instead of going through this and immediately getting help, this extended now for potentially for a year, whatever it was. it disrupts that basic narrative he's been effective at selling. i think the other real problem is this. all that he's done right now in terms of getting into this rates competitively in the polls has been without any establishment support in new york city. no unions no, major elected officials. all on the power of personality and name. it's been kind of impressive. it had gotten to the point where he had gotten near the top of the polls, raised the possibility that he was serious enough that maybe some of the establishment would give him a second look for various reasons and he could actually start corralling real serious establishment support, endorsements, that kind of thing that might take him from being competitive to really making him the front-runner. i think this really potentially forecloses that possibility. if for no other reason, if you're an established democrat and looking at this today, you're saying when is this going to stop.

it he survives today's revelations do we get new one aweek before the primary or the general election? i think that is really the threat to him that he's just not going to have establishment support at any point in this campaign. >> well, thank you. let me go to joan. joan, i have to tell you, i don't know whether this is evil what he does, naughty, ridiculous, embarrassing. i don't know what -- because i don't understand. we all have a sex drive of different kinds. i don't know what drive this is. why would you want to sext pictures of your naked self around the country? what is it we're talking to in terms of behavior that we can even put in a box and say this fits the category of what? >> of narcissist, exhibitionist. i'm not a psychologist, chris. that's out of my experience. but i can just he will you, the fact when he came to us, look, new yorkers are a forgiving people. they're ornery. i knew a lot of people in his district district who didn't want him to resign in the first

place. so they were willing to give him another chance but as steve says, this is becoming ridiculous. there are so many ways to serve. let's say he has a problem and wants to do this the rest of his life. you want to serve, you want to be in public life. stay out of politics. don't require that you're vetted constantly. and when he came to us in the very beginning and said, there are -- i can't say there won't be more coming out, i was like are you serious? other people were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. but i don't see redemption twice. i don't see forgiveness twice if this turns out to be a more recent thing. >> ed koch who had a mixed record, certainly was interesting, steve, and joan, was a man somewhat without restraint but he had some restraint. he kept his private life to himself. he never ever despite his over the top behavior, i sort of liked him at times and not at other times. this is being thrown at us it seems. it's not investigative reporting.

it's a guy coming into our private lives with his strangeness. it's an invasion of our privacy, if you will. we keep hearing about a guy as you said or joan said, it's exhibitionism to the point where he's streaking digitally down the street to us. you know? why do we want to know this? >> things we can not unsee. >> can't unsee the guy. i don't want to know all this about weiner. your thoughts, steve. this is maybe below your pay grade. it's embarrassing to us all. this guy's called a press conference on national television in a minute. he's going to be the big story of the night, not trayvon martin, not the princess having a baby, but this stuff. >> well, you know, two things. first of all, there are few politicians i've seen, i've written about who is as overtly ambitious as anthony weiner. >> what does he want out of life? >> he wants to be mayor of new york. >> other ambitions. >> ed koch is sort of his personal political hero.

he idolizes ed koch, wants to be ed koch sort of for the 21st century. >> ed koch i imagine, i'm just guessing because i respect him as a public official, made certain sacrifices. he didn't live in gracie mansion. he lived quietly in an apartment. whatever he did alone or with someone else was his business and no one else's. that kind of restraint is not part of the package we're getting apparently from weiner. restraint. >> the other thing, at a human level, i think we can look at what happened before. two years ago and we can say this was sort of a human failing on his part. it was shocking, surprising, all of these things. but i look at that ambition i'm talking about. i haven't seen politicians are -- he's more amount bishs than anyone else i've covered. i thought after what he went through, that ambition would go override the other stuff. that's so shocking that it would keep happening >> we'll find out. leave open the possibility he's got something to tell us.

i don't trust him. elied to luke russert and spinning and saying it may have happened afterward, some clever pr language that suggests it might have happened before or after. good reporters will pin him down in the next couple of minutes and nail him. is this a recurring problem since you went public with this last time time. steve and joan, thank you as always. we'll bring anthony weiner'snous conference live when it happens. we're still waiting. coming up, the zimmerman verdict and president obama's comments just last friday exposed the enduring racial divide in america. new polling shows how differently blacks and whites and democrats and republicans view the verdict down there in sanford. also, president obama's big speech tomorrow on the economy. he's got two goals to take credit for aim proving economy, fair enough and put an end to the perception he isn't so much shaping events as letting them shape him. that's dangerous for a president. and this an, we got our first look at the royal newborn.

our corrupt fought a revolution to get out from under the monarchy but here we are, very much in love with the birth of a royal baby. the late night comedians were handed a gift when kate middleton handed the world a future king. >> oh, my god, yes, yes, yes! a son, a son. you mean a king! all kneel to the one true king. kneel. kneel for god's sake. >> it's easy for a brit to make fun of it. we take it more interesting than that. this is "hardball," the place for politics. for seeing the big financial picture. for knowing the days your money is going out, and when it's coming in. for having danger days, to warn you when you're running a little low. for help seeing your money in a whole new light go to pncvirtualwallet.com and see everything pnc virtual wallet® has to offer. pnc bank. for the achiever in you®.

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"hardball." the zimmerman trial and the verdict, of course, have been polarizing issues in america. it's not just race where the divisions are clear but also on politics. look at this, a new post/abc news poll shows when it comes to the question, do you approve of the verdict to acquit zimmerman adults are evenly split. only 22% of democrats say they think the verdict was the right one compared to 65% of republicans. the disapproval numbers are mirror images of each other. also along party lines with 62% of democrats disapproving of

that not guilty verdict compared with just 20% again one in five of republicans who think it was the wrong verdict. not surprisingly, the partisan responses are similar when asked the questions, this is interesting, do blacks and minorities in america receive equal treatment as whites do in the criminal justice system? overall the country is split again, but democrats are far less likely to answer yes to that question than republicans. by a 26-66 margin, in fact, in fact, 70% of democrats say there isn't equal treatment compared to just 29% of republicans who do. a big split there. with the fault lines exposed on this issue, how do political leaders in local and nationwide areas navigate racial tensions in a balanced way? what is the role of government? what should it be? as tip o'neill used to say, all politics is local. joining us are leaders of two of the most socially diverse cities in there country. the mayor of atlanta and the

mayor of tampa. both are democrats. maybe they will have different experiences. mayor reid, tell us how you unite this country in an undering of what most democrats and overwhelmingly african-americans believe to be a problem. >> chris, think we're going to have to refrain the conversation around race because most folks are deeply tied to how they feel. we really have to tie the conversation around race to the overall well-being of the country. the united states of america is on an irreversible path to being a multiethnic multidimensional country. and. order for it to be what it has been, which is a unique source of good in the world, then leading -- the leading economy in the world, we have to deal with tough issues that are related to race, not as a part of any social ethic although that's the moral thing to do. we're going to have to do it because we can't afford to lose underperforming young men who happen to be black or latino or

rural white young men in the manner that we have in the past and continue to be the leading country in the world. i think that is a healthier conversation than the conversation that we typically find ourselves in around race. so it needs to be reframed because we're going to have to change the results. see, i'm focused on the results of young black boys and black girls and rural white boys and latino children. they're going to having to having better outcomes. we're going to have to having specific initiatives that are supported in a bipartisan way that lift folks out of the kind of challenges that lead to the statistics that we are all so aware of. so i think that's where the conversation has to go. >> let me go to mayor buck horn. your thoughts about tampa, a very diverse city, hispanics, african-americans, whites of all different backgrounds, cubans. i'm amazed by your city and its

diversity. how do you improve the situation as a political leader when you see that people -- it's like a rorschach trial. whites and blacks see that trial. my conviction is if we all saw a videotape like a surveillance tape and saw exactly what happened, all of us seeing the exact same picture what happened, there would still be very different public vers what they were seeing and who was the bad guy. >> that's absolutely true, chris. i think first of all, what we need to admit is racism is like a cancer that it's at the heart of this country. we can't deny it anymore. i can't ever walk in the shoes of an african-american and live through those experiences of being followed in a store, hearing the doors click can all the things the president talked about but i know them to be true. what mayor reed talked about is framing this in terms of an economic issue. we're multicultural here in

tampa. african-americans were not brought here of their own volition. we're competing on i an world stage. when we compete for jobs and corporate relocations we are so much stronger and more competitive together if we can get beyond that color. if we can get beyond the age-old differences and the age-old fights we've been fighting about as a country for years and years and recognize we are so much stronger. this economic tide that will throw the all these boats will be much better if we recognize we're all pulling at it together. >> let's get back to the bakes. bakes take a long time to change. i like what mayor reed said. i grew up in row houses in north philadelphia, used to be irish and polish. it's the same housing stock. it looks the same in some neighborhoods. but those houses used to have people living in them, my generation growing up, where there were jobs nearby. you work at a factory. you didn't need a high school education. get a real job and make enough

money to provide for a family. one person working. now today these young black kids throwing up in the same neighborhoods, where do they go to get a job after they graduate from high school? that is the biggest challenge. those kids have been let loose beak the way the slaves were with no hope, no property, no 30 acres and a mule, nothing. i think they've been left to be warehoused. they're being warehoused and everybody hopes they'll be peaceful and supportive of the country. mr. reed, i think you're right it comes down to jobs and putting a kid to work. >> chris, think you know the best program for all of us is a job. what we did is reached out to the private sector and we started an initiative here called hire one in atlanta. i just left a visit with 80 college interns, most of them were black young people ho had internships at city hall. but we need more than the traditional individuals, a

democrat, black mayor like myself, progressive white people focusing on this issue. this has to be an all hands on deck situation. it is not okay for latino children and black children and rural children to continue to be left aside in the manner that they are. >> have you told the president this. >> it has to be a national imperative. >> have you called the president and said i'm the mayor of atlanta. i've been voting for you the last couple times. how come we don't have a jobs program? >> because in all honesty, i think that the president has done a great deal to provide jobs. i think the biggest obstruction to job creation has been the gridlock around infrastructure investment. those are well paying construction jobs. the numbers are in of the american recovery and reinvestment act. about 10% was spent on infrastructure. good well-paying construction opportunities, things we always used to agree about that.

that delivered about 30% of the verifiable jobs that were a part as the whole recovery act. we need to get past of this hard partisan divide on job creation and black people benefit, latino people benefit and rural white people benefit. but for some reason, weise can't even get together on infrastructure investment. >> i agree. >> it used to be a slam-dunk in the united states. >> let me go to the mayor buck horn on that point. mayor reed talks the way i try to do on television and say in the end, it's not start of the art geniusy. it's focusing on the fact we've got jobs that need doing and people available to do them at reasonable wage rates. they want to work. and they don't have a job. it seems the supply and depend meet here. we've got a lot of, work to do and people looking for work at a time when interest rates are so low we can finance things that are really big. >> chris, when i talk to these young men out on the corner,

they want to work, too. they recognize that that is a dead end path for them to go down the path of drugs or for crime. many of them as a result of minimum mandatory sentencing in the '80s and '90s as a result of the crack cocaine epidemic are carrying felony records which is a hurdle for them as they try to get that job. they want that job. they'll come up to me and say i will do anything, il work anywhere. i want ha opportunity to succeed and make amends for my mistake and raise my family. >> make noise, guys. i'm on your team. you're both speaking the language of this country right now. thank you, mayor kasim reed of atlanta and bob buckhorn of atlanta. this is "hardball," the place for politics. my doctor and i went with axiron, the only underarm low t treatment. axiron can restore t levels to normal in about 2 weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer.

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right now to improve people's lives. i am sending this congress a plan that you should pass right away. it's called the american jobs act. there should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. everything in here is the kind you have proposal that's been supported by both democrats and republicans. including many who sit here tonight. and an everything in this bill will be paid for. everything. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was, of course, president obama early, it was nearly two years ago pushing his jobs bill, the american jobs act it was called to a joint session of congress. harry reid put the bill to a full vote before the senate that same week but republicans blocked the bill's bassage and continue to block subsequent piecemeal approaches to create jobs, as well. tomorrow, that's tomorrow this week, wednesday, the president will again try to focus the country's attention back to the

economy in a major speech at knox college in illinois. and it comes as americans are turning more optimistic about the economy. "new york times" cbs poll from june found 39% of americans feel good about the economy. today a vast improvement from the 5% who felt good about the economy when the president came to office. well, that's 39%. it's the highest positive number since the president took office. so can president obama make the case he deserves some of the credit for improving the economy? joining me right now is the former republican party chair michael steele and democratic strategist bob shrum. we've got about five or seven minutes to get to the point. my personal beef with the preds, i don't have many, why don't you have a real jobs bill and sell it every day of your life? old time like the mayor was saying from atlanta, construction, replace the smell of decay with the smell of the shovels and dirt being moved, the smell of cement, whether it's highways or buildings or

bridges, why aren't you doing that stuff with so many unemployed and interest rates so low? >> that's the heart of the question. >> would a republican president be doing it? would he be doing infrastructure? >> i don't know if he would be doing infrastructure. that's where it begins. there's legitimate concern about where you start. i think that's one of the areas you can start. when you go back to the shovel-ready projects the president promoted back in 2011, turns out those projects weren't so shovel ready. that's been part of the problem here. the fits and starts have gotten people to the point where they don't know what it all means anymore. >> bob, every time we see a crew out there on the road on a nice day working hard, i feel good about this country. a lot of these people are minorities, hispanic guys make a good wage, they're doing something we need done. we love it when the road looks good and the car's not butching around and losing tires and into pot holes. we love new bridges. we love anything that's new in terms of infrastructure. we may bitch about the price but love it's getting done and it's

real government in action. why no action? why no bill? with a name on it called obama -- >> the president has sent bills up to do exactly that and they've gone to the house where they died because that's what happens when you send a bill to the house. look, the president i think has no illusions about the impact of the speech tomorrow in terms of getting a jobs bill through. the republicans in the house just won't do it. he's trying to frame the debate. we've about to go into a big fight about the debt limit and about a continuing resolution to keep the government operating. the republicans now say they're ready to crash the full faith and credit of the united states or close down the government if the president won't concede that he's going to enact romney/ryan budget cuts or won't agree 0 repeal obama care. he did this very successfully in 2012 we beginning at that speech in kansas, he's trying to frame this debate, trying to say we need to build prosperity from

the middle out, not from the top down. >> i hate to bring everythinging into one unit on thetory solution. when we talk about the young african-american guile who suffers from maybe not a quality education, maybe he's a dropout. that guy needs a job too. >> he needs a job. it's not just about creating a construction job. that's part of the problem. >> what's the republican answer? >> the republican answer is looking at the local neighborhood businesses and how those businesses will give that young black male a job in that neighborhood. why should i have to go across town to a construction site when there are jobs on the street that are closed or jobs on the street that could expand. >> what's the government's role? >> the government role is to create playing field for the people to compete effectively without necessarily becoming dependent on a government program. you can create those through tax policy. >> can you? i'm asking, when have you done it? give me an xax. >> in the '80s and '90s, all of those positions that the republicans and crates rallied

around, whether it was some type of economic reforms, cutting taxes, incentivizing small businesses. in the state of maryland, we didn't raise taxes in maryland to correct a $2 billion shortfall and yet our economy grew. we created jobs. >> the bottom line, we have a jobless recovery, bob. and michael. we have a jobless recovery. why? going so well, the dow's booming. >> business people are happy about it because they can get more done with less workers. >> let's get a little perspective here. when the president came 0 office, we were losing 700 thousand of to 900,000 jobs a month. we're now creating about 200,000 jobs a month. the imf, ben bernanke, the g-20 all say one of the problems is that our policies haven't been about expanry enough. the republican answer is, cut taxes for people at the top, shred workforce which is what they're doing and all those young african-americans you're talking about need workforce, need to go to community colleges, need to get trained

for these jobs and don't create any of this kind -- don't invest in infrastructure. >> we've got a guy looking for a job right now, his name's anthony weiner. michael steele and bob. >> he's not going to get that job. he's not getting that job. >> you're another christine quinn fan like me. here he is live. here he is live, anthony wiener. >> he's at the podium. give us a couple seconds. >> good afternoon, take your time. take your time. you ready to go? good afternoon, my name's anthony weiner, democratic candidate for mayor of the city of new york. i have said that other texts and photos were likely to come out. and today they have. as i've said in the past, these things that i did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through many challenges in our marriage that extended past my resignation from congress.

while some of the things that have been posted today are true and some are not, there is no question that what i did was wrong. this behavior is behind me. i've apologized to my wife huma and i'm grateful she has worked through these issues with me and that i've had her forgiveness. i want to again say how sorry i am to anyone who has received -- at the receiving end of these messages and that the disruption this has caused. and my wife as i said are moving forward together. to some degree with 49 days left until primary day, perhaps i'm surprised that more things didn't come out sooner. i'm responsible for this behavior that led us to be in this place. but in many ways, things are not that much different than they were yesterday. this behavior that i did was problematic to say the least. destructive to say the most, caused many stresses and strains

in my marriage. but i'm pleased and blessed that she has given me a second chance. for the past several months, i've been asking new yorkers to also give me another chance to show them that i had a vision for the middle class and those struggling to make it and that i wanted to move forward. it is perfectly reasonable for people to ask about this chapter in my life, to be curious about it, and i'm going to be there and try to answer toes questions as best i can. it is also perfectly understandable that all of you are doing your job being here in these great numbers. i'm sure it's not just because of the mayor forum we're going to have in a few minutes. all that being said, let me just reiterate to my wife how sorry i am that i did these things and how sorry i am to the people that got these messages for any inconvenience or embarrassment they've caused. now some have asked the question, where does this fit in

some timeline, some timeline of the continuum of the resignation. the resignation was not a point in time that was nearly as important to my wife and me as the challenges in our marriage and the challenges of the things that i had done. and working through them. some of these things happened before my resignation, some of them happened after, but the fact is that that was also the time that my wife and i were working through some things in our marriage. i'm glad these things are behind us. i know that this was a very public thing that we had happen to us. but by no means does it change the fundamentals of my feelings here, and that is that i want to bring my vision to the people of the city of new york. i hope they're willing to still continue to give me a second chance. and i hope they realize that in many ways, what happened today

was something that, frankly had, happened before but it doesn't represent all that much that is new. and now i have a chance to do something i haven't had a chance to do on the campaign yet. huma has been out there with me recently and she had a few words that she wanted to say. so my amazing wife, huma abedin. >> as many of you who have followed this campaign know, i've spent a good deal out on the campaign trail at churches and street fairs, parades, but this is the first time i've spoken at a press conference. you'll have to bear with me because i'm pretty nervous and i wrote down what i wanted to say. when we faced this publicly two years ago, it was the beginning of a time in our marriage that

was very difficult, and it took us a very long time to get through it. our marriage, like many others, has had its ups and its downs. it took a lot of work and a whole lot of therapy to get to a place where i could give anthony. it was not an easy choice in any way. but i made the decision that it was worth staying in this marriage. that was a decision i made for me, for our son, and for our family. i didn't know how it would work out. but i did know that i wanted to give it a try. anthony's made some horrible mistakes. both before he resigned from congress and after.

but i do very strongly believe that is between us and our marriage. we discussed all of this before anthony decided to run for mayor. so really what i want to say is, i love him, i have fibbhave for him, and as i said from the beginning, we are moving forward. thank you for your time. >> i'll be glad to take one or two questions. >> when did your wife find out that there were messages after the resignation? >> she knew all along this process as i was more and more honest with her. i told her everything so we -- this is something we knew going into the decision about whether i would run. what is that question? >> is this over? are you in touch with any women right now?

why should new yorkers believe you're not going to relapse if you are mayor? >> this is entirely behind me. it was when we decided -- when i decided to get in and we had this conversation. that is why, if you remember, the early days of the campaign, people were pressing me for is there more out there, and i said yes. i said that there was. and so to some degree, this was something that we had in front of us as huma just acknowledged that we knew might come up and we decided this is something we put behind us and something we wanted to keep behind us. it's in our rearview mirror but it's not far. we still work every day. >> reporter: new pictures or old pictures? >> when you said there was more out there, you didn't say there was more out there you at the point after you resigned in 2011. how do you explain that? and this latest chat was as recent as august of last year?

>> yeah, i mean, this -- i said there were more things out there. there were -- this is -- you have as a fixed time the resignation as the important moment in the public discussion. that was when the public got a glimpse into something that we had been working on before, during and since, and this behavior of mine was part of that. and when we -- we went through this process and we became closer and worked through some of these challenges, this we put it behind us. i put it behind me. and frankly, we're in a lot better place today or else i probably would not have run for mayor. >> when was the last -- >> i can't -- i can't say exactly. sometime last summer i think. >> was it after you told "people" magazine it took us a

lot of work to get us today? >> yes. >> after that? >> yes. >> drop out of the race. what do you say to those people who want you to drop out of the race. >> i'm sure many of my opponents would like me to drop out of the race. >> reporter: when was the definitive moment for you? you said some things were true online, some things weren't true. tell us what was not true? >> one of the things i'm not going to do and i said it to your newspaper, i'm not going to get into a back and forth with people hole are releasing things, whether they be true or not. people have a right to say whatever they want. i brought that upon myself. i am prepared not to dispute anything that is out there, but suffice it to say that people are out there saying things that are -- that are not true. >> what else is out there? >> that's not the point. that's not the point. i accept the responsibility for having these conversations with these people who i never met.

with exchanging inappropriate things in the context of our marriage and that was a mistake and i bear responsibility for that. that is behind me. and we're trying to move forward. we are recognizing it's not going to be easy. we knew it the moment we got into this race that it wasn't going to be easy. but i believe this is an important thing to be doing. >> thank you all very much. >> reporter: why should we trust your judgment? why? >> bob shrum, what do you make of that? i think he admitted for the record here -- well, i'm here with michael. steve kornacki is on the line. steve, i heard him makenous by saying this behavior continued "after his resignation from congress." he also in that last little exchange there, the second to last exchange said it continued through last summer. and it seems to me that the ending of this behavior, this sexting of naked pictures of himself or whatever continued up till the time he decided to begin 0 run for mayor. in other words, the only reason

he stopped doing this is because he was putting himself in a very precarious position electorally. it seems the transition from doing this type of behavior to a different kind of public exhibitionism, running for office. he just changed his mode it seems to me. he kept saying it was in the context of my marriage. i may have had inappropriate communications as if that's some sort of a formality problem he has as if there's nothing really wrong with the guy he's basically saying. >> i learned a long time ago watching and writing about anthony weiner, he is particularly slippery in how he talks in how he phrases things and it can get him in trouble. he can be way too cute with things. that's the big surprise that comes out of this for people. when he said at the outset of this mayoral campaign in a few months ago more stuff would come out, that was not much of a surprise because everybody in the world assumed that meant something else from 2010, from

2011. nobody took that statement to mean, by the way, this continued for more than a year till about what, seven eight months till i decided to get into the mayor's race. this is typical classic wiener what i just saw. >> what journal would take that at face value when the obvious statement being made was the problem existed up till the point when i resigned and there was a problem all over the place till then, who would buy the fact that that he foretold that the problem would continue? who would write that even print it as a statement from this guy? >> which leads to this point, who will buy anything that he just said today. i don't know how much else is out there. i don't know if it stopped last august. maybe it was last fall. if there's a pattern with weiner besigh the cuteness, it's that the stuff eventually does come out. and so if there is anything else out there, we're going to know about it. >> let's go to kelly o'donnell. kelly, i know you're a straight

reporter. i can have opinions. when you drag your spouse out before the public only for this never before did he use her in this way, oem this to cover his butt, drag out a great public servant, very respected and drags her out to stand there next to him it makes richard and pat nixon look like it was a royal marriage. this is -- i don't know, indecency is not the right word for it. look at that nice woman trying to smell through the hell. >> there's a whole study of how spouses behave in really difficult times and very often, we have seen a lot of criticism of the spouse who stands by a husband who's been publicly humiliateded and by extension one would argue humiliating her. huma is someone of substance, her own career. mother of his child and she's wlrd quite a bit of with him so far. her professions of love and support and forgiveness, let's assume she means that fully and complete, she is someone well

regarded and it has political weight for her to say that. the question will be, is it too much for voters? can they trust him? how will they sift through this information and decide for themselves? themselves. it looks like anthony weiner believed that all of that bad behavior fell under one sort of category can, and it was a conflict within his marriage. he doesn't seem to address very forthrightly what it means to voters in terms of trust and judgment, and that's what over the next several weeks if he does remain in this race he'll certainly be called upon, even taunted to leave. how voters kind of settle with this. forgiveness is one thing. then the question is this too soon? is it too much? chris? >> he came out with two bits of news here tonight. confessions, if you will. if he had more of a super ego, something that said you should be ashamed of himself. he said this all happened after, which is august of the year he had to resign from the congress. and then in the very tail end,

he said at the end, it continued up until last summer. well, that wasn't during the time they were having their so-called marriage challenges. this was continuing as a part of his life. and i guess you should have to ask, will voters be asked to say we're going to have a mayor that sexts out there. this is what he does in his free time. i respect the fact that a guy like ed koch has kept his life private. sometimes that's a wonderful thing. just keep it to yourself. he is not doing that. >> one of the difficulties in this is he has made it very clear that he has not met these women. but then that leads this paper trail of comments which have obviously been saved and kept and have some sort of corroborating facts that go along with them that have made this even more difficult for him to get behind him. very different than some of the other kinds of scandals where basically there is no empirical evidence for those of us on the outside to see. when you come to the new world of sexting, there is that, which is far more stark and far more

difficult for people to look at and get past. women voters may be remembering this might have been occurring while houma was pregnant, while their child was very young. he is still just a toddler. and it will be interesting to see how they react to that, given how people feel about what this means to relationships beyond the politics. and he is going to have a lot to explain to voters and to the people close to him. >> what did you make of his apology to the women -- i guess women that receive these messages? i thought sexting was a mutually agreeable pastime, that you didn't just flash it out there to unsuspecting recipients. he seemed to be admitting tonight, or confessing the fact that he was sending naked pictures of himself to strangers, and if that inconvenienced them i think was his phrase, boy, that's a strange use of the determine r term, he was sorry for that. i don't believe a word of it. he is aware somewhere out there people he didn't know were getting this full picture of himself. >> well, by apologizing to the women, it may also be a subtle

suggestion that they not come forward. if memory serves me right, he did that two years ago, trying to not antagonize those who have evidence against him let's say as a scenario. and maybe it's also just a part of trying to apologize in as many directions as he can. a lot of the language he has used is very similar to what he did two years ago. he is both combative and trying to be contrite and kind of trying to have all of these different dimensions in what typically would be a fatal political move. >> well, just to recap the events today, and they are rather startling, we all thought even though of us not very kindly disposed to this man's candidacy after what he put us through two years ago when word got out he had been sending indecent pictures of himself to apparently thousands of people, by accident or not. he then apologized for that, left the office of the united states congressman and sort of went into political banishment for a while. came back several months ago as a very strong actually candidate

for mayor, saying that he had gotten that all behind him. it turns out now it didn't get him behind him because it turns out today he has admitted not only did he continue to sext after he resigned from congress and after all the embarrassment with his marriage and with the city of new york. he began to -- he either resumed or continued to do so right through the summer of 2011 and then again through the summer of 2012, stopping only apparently when he decided on a political venture of running for mayor, perhaps another form of exhibitionism, if you want to get a little psychological here. but clearerly, the man has a pattern now. and i guess it's a wonder, kelly, you and i cannot figure or fathom the political culture of new york. i'm not a new yorker. be right now he has been head to head with christine quinn, the speaker of the council in new york who is a strong candidate. he is still a candidate. i assume as of tonight. >> well, i was a new yorker for a period of time, and i think new yorkers do want to have a great deal of pride in their city and in the mayor, who is a political figure larger than any

mayor in the country, and maybe even the world. so it will be interesting to see what new yorkers say. scrappy, comeback, all of those positives that are usually a part of a return to public life. will voters give him that chance? is there even enough time with only seven weeks until the primary. and it will be interesting to see how the other candidates respond. because the way they handle this may really dictate what happens over the next course of days, if there is also a much more public response as we get to talk to voters and hear what people are thinking, will some of those who were perhaps supporting weiner be very publicly in favor of another candidate, and it becomes sort of a snowball that is rolling and he will either stay in the race and be defeated, stay in the race and somehow get a victory out of this, or perhaps we'll see him decide to step aside. no sign of that yet in these early hours. chris? >> i would bet he is going to try to stick it and come in second at best that will restore

his credibility to some extent. here is some of what anthony weiner, the former congressman said just minutes ago. >> some have asked the question where does this fit in, some timelines, some timeline of the continuum of the resignation. the resignation was not a point in time that was nearly as important to my wife and me as the challenges in our marriage and the challenges of the things that i had done. and working through them. some of these things happened before my resignation. some of them happened after. but the fact is that that was also the time that my wife and i were working through some things in our marriage. >> but then again, after making it sound like it was a period of months in which he was going through kind of a change, perhaps a distance in his marriage, somewhat acceptable, i guess, if you stretch it, he then said later in the press conference that he continued to behave in this fashion, sexting indecent picture of himself, in fact getting more graphic all the way to the summer of 2012.

kelly, it seems to me that a lot of news from him tonight, a surprising amount of news and confession, i think. >> well, another thing people will recall is houma abedin was working for then secretary of state clinton, traveling the world with herrer in an official capacity. it does suggest were they spending a lot of time apart. those are all the personal things people will dissect. the politics of this is fascinating, to suggest to voters after you suffer just an unimaginable humiliation and giving up of your career as a congressman, that that would not be enough to change the behavior if then you want to seek public office again. i think that's the harder part of this. and that's really voters will have to sift through this and decide. and certainly he will be criticized, analyzed, and people will look to his spouse to see are there signs that they maybe have gotten past, this or is that simply his latest explanation. >> kelly o'donnell of nbc news, thanks for joining us.

let's go to joan in washington. joan, it's one thing for a wife to put up almost everything. here we see pretty much the limit. in fact beyond the limit. why would the democratic party want to be named and type cast with this guy as the official mayor of new york democrat style? >> well, i don't think they do at this point. it's very tough, chris, though, because he does not have colleagues, he does not have leadership like he did in the house there is really no function that is going to serve to push him out. there is nobody at this point. i get the feeling that has sway or can say you have to get out of this race. so he may very well stay in it. you know, i was really stunned by that display, and i wanted to say someone thing about houma abedin. i don't want to act as though she is just a pawn. i don't think any wife should ever have to do that. that was awful. but it's very possible that she volunteered and that she was willing to do it. so i'm very careful not to just paint her as somehow the wounded victim. i mean, she is wounded, but she

has also wanted him to run. so it was a very strange scene. it was very disturbing. and who knows how much longer it's going to go on. it could go on for a while. >> do you think at one point mrs. clinton with all the prestige she carries now would say i don't really want to be identified with this at all. i'm embarrassed by. this i don't want this to continue as a spectacle, haunting the democrats for years. >> oh, that poor woman. she is getting dragged into yet another horrible scandal, right? i don't know. obviously, her opinion has to matter. and who knows what is being said behind the scenes. i don't. but she can't possibly want this humiliation to go on. no democrat could want this to continue. he has not told us that there will be no more. he basically said there could be more things beyond this out there. he never once said that this is over, this is the last thing. he never said that this behavior

ended at any particular time. he is accusing us of being fixated on timelines like his resignation date. that is a special date to us, but not to him. what is a special date to him, election day? it's really -- it's really astonishing. >> i have to tell you that i've never, joan, seen anything like this. >> no. >> usually there is a pattern. you get caught, you're nailed, you forget -- you try to get some kind of public forgiveness. >> right. >> and you say goodbye. anyway, thank you so much, joan walsh. this isn't a very savory story to be covering. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. we'll be right back one hour from now with another edition of "hardball." "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. thanks, chris, and thanks to you for tuning in. i'm live in miami. tonight's lead, breaking news. former congressman anthony weiner currently a candidate for mayor of new york city just gave a pre