Weiner admits tweet of lewd photo

In an extraordinary reversal at an extraordinary news conference, Rep. Anthony Weiner admitted Monday that he had lied repeatedly to constituents and the country in denying he had sent a lewd picture of himself to a college-age woman from Seattle on Twitter.

In a tearful admission, the New York Democrat said he in fact had sent multiple inappropriate messages to women but that he had done nothing illegal and would not resign.

"The picture was of me, and I sent it," Weiner said of a photo of a man in boxer briefs, sent to Whatcom Community College student Gennette Cordova. He called it "a very dumb thing to do," "a hugely regrettable mistake" and "destructive."

"I am deeply ashamed," said Weiner, his jaw clenched.

Soon after Weiner finished speaking, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who he said had urged him to tell the truth, called on the House ethics committee to conduct an investigation.

For Weiner, a seven-term congressman seen as a leading candidate to become New York's next mayor, the collapse is all the more stunning in light of the heights he had reached in his party and as a spokesman for its liberal wing. Republican leaders mostly had watched the public self-immolation of one of their sharpest antagonists. His closest allies limited themselves to moral support.

Speaking in a Midtown Manhattan Sheraton, Weiner, 46, known for his swagger and barbed quips, choked up as he expressed regret to his wife of less than a year, Huma Abedin, a close aide of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He then apologized to the media that had transformed the Brooklyn firebrand into a national star.

That humbled self-assessment was in contrast to the bombast that Weiner demonstrated last week, when he sought — to disastrous effect — to shame reporters for asking questions about a photo sent from his Twitter account. He repeatedly said his account had been "hacked," but he failed to answer basic questions — such as whether the photo was of him and why he hadn't called for an investigation.

That defiance appeared drained from the congressman Monday as he stood for more than 30 minutes taking fire from reporters, who asked whether he had used government computers to send the messages, whether he knew recipients to be underage, whether he had engaged in phone sex, whether his wife would stand by him and whether he believed he could be re-elected.

"I don't believe I did anything that violates any law or any rule," said Weiner, who specified he used his personal BlackBerry. "I don't see anything I did that violated any rules of the House. I don't see anything that violated my oath of office to uphold the Constitution."

To be clear, he added, "I am not resigning."

Weiner's admission that he had engaged in inappropriate — but always virtual — relationships with at least six women whom he met on Facebook over the past three years concluded the initial chapter of a confusing political spectacle.

A tweet from what is believed to be Cordova's Twitter account Monday insisted she was not among the six women. "He has had six inappropriate relationships with women online in the last three years. If it wasn't clear, I was not one of them," the tweet said. Another tweet from the account said she never "backed" the theory that Weiner's account had been hacked.

The congressman had emerged in recent years as a superstar of liberal-leaning cable TV shows and blogs, excoriating Republicans at every turn. So it was only fitting that Andrew Breitbart — the conservative blogger who first seized on the Twitter photo and posted newly acquired shirtless self-portraits of Weiner on Monday — pre-empted Weiner's news conference with an impromptu soliloquy, prompting many observers to question whether the entire event was a Breitbart gag.

But when Weiner, dour-faced and contrite, took the stage about 4:25 p.m. EDT, it was clear the situation was serious. He delivered a statement full of "regret" and fielded questions. Weiner apologized to "everyone in the media," including, he said, "Andrew Breitbart."

Weiner's conservative opponents were not satisfied.

"It's time for Democratic leadership to explain why Congressman Weiner's actions never aroused any suspicion and why they rushed to his defense while so many Americans were shocked and confused by his bizarre and disturbing behavior," said Paul Lindsay, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The criticism echoes Pelosi's critique of GOP leaders in fall 2006, when the scandal was then-Rep. Mark Foley's instant-message flirtations with male congressional pages. Pelosi criticized Republicans for ignoring warning signs, and Foley, R-Fla., resigned rather than face an ethics investigation.

Weiner said he had no reason to believe any of the women he communicated with were underage but allowed he had only their social-media profiles to go on.

Ethics lawyer Stanley Brand said there are no clear-cut congressional rules on how members should behave on the Internet. "We're in the Twitter era," he said.

Weiner said his wife, whom he married last July, knew of some of his prior online relationships but that he hadn't confessed sending the photo to Cordova until Monday morning. His voice quavered as he spoke of his love for his wife, saying she assured him they would get through the episode.

Washington Post reporter Paul Kane and Seattle Times staff reporter Queenie Wong contributed to this report.