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What New Documentary ‘Weiner’ Reveals About Huma Abedin And Hillary Clinton

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 14:56 PST, Jan 20, 2016

Huma Abedin, wife of Anthony Weiner and advisor to Hillary Clinton, is featured in the new documentary Weiner, and things are getting awkward. Really awkward. The timing of the reveal of Weiner will make people question whether Abedin is an asset or hindrance to Clinton, and it will also make people, particularly women, ask why Abedin is still with Anthony Weiner.

Vanity Fair is covering the topic of Huma Abedin and the documentary Weiner at length. William Cohan remarks that Weiner has been revealed this week, and it’s making many people uncomfortable. Anthony Weiner was the politician whose semi-nude selfies and sexts went viral, ending his political career, and making his wife look like one more victimized political wife.

“Weiner’s own political career may be over, but Weiner is likely to pose more trouble for his wife, Huma Abedin, a longtime senior advisor to Hillary Clinton and the vice-chair of her presidential campaign. The timing is particularly thorny. As I noted in my recent profile, it is increasingly unclear whether Abedin is Clinton’s secret weapon or her next big problem,” wrote Vanity Fair‘s William D. Cohan.

But the question is whether Abedin became ineffectual professionally as well as personally when Weinergate was revealed.

“The movie, which will appear at the Sundance Film Festival, is the latest misadventure in the genre among seekers of that high office.”

Weiner is the second documentary about Anthony Weiner’s failed run for mayor of New York. Chutzpah was the first, by Peter Savodnik.

“There’s a real appeal to him,” Savodnik told Vanity Fair‘s Cohan. “He’s super-smart, hyper-aggressive; he’s got a dollop of Ed Koch and Lenny Bruce, maybe—less funny—but, still, there’s that deeply New York aspect to him, which is ultimately charming, abrasive, self-effacing. All of which made for a great character,” he explains.

But in another article, Vanity Fair questioned the wisdom of Hillary Clinton having Huma Abedin as her sidekick. The two women both have been cheated on publicly by their husbands, and stuck around. But Clinton is protective of Abedin, and some in the Clinton camp, Abedin is protected, sometimes to the detriment of Clinton. Everyone has been told that they are not to talk to the press about Abedin. Ever.

“I’m being very candid with you,” a “Clinton observer” told Vanity Fair. “It’s a situation where everyone’s afraid to comment for fear that they’ll be misquoted, for fear of saying something they may think is laudatory that others may not. You can’t imagine the paranoia…. It’s a paranoia that clearly affects how everyone responds to Huma.”

But “Weinergate” became the big topic of conversation when it went public that Weiner was tweeting pictures of his penis. He quickly told his wife that his account had been hacked, which was a lie.

“‘My Twitter was hacked.’ In fact, despite what he told Abedin and the media, Weiner had mistakenly tweeted a photograph of his erection, meant for a 21-year-old college student in Seattle, to his 45,000 followers. Reporters besieged him,” wrote Vanity Fair.

But finally, Weiner confessed that it was him, and he had made a big mistake.

People Magazine says that Weiner goes uncomfortably into private areas. It reveals that Anthony Weiner called himself “Carlos Danger” as he was running around on his wife. It’s hard to imagine why the Weiners allowed this documentary to be made.

“We don’t know,” Julie Goldman told the Times, via People. “I think they were very comfortable with Josh (Kriegman, the film’s director, who was chief of staff for Weiner’s district office from 2005 to 2006). It was also unfolding so rapidly.”

Anthony Weiner says that he doesn’t regret making the documentary, but it’s likely that Hillary Clinton and Abedin don’t agree.

“I don’t regret letting you follow me around. I wanted to be viewed as the full person I was.”

Do you think Huma Abedin’s effectiveness was compromised by Weiner?

[Photo courtesy of John Moore/Getty Images]

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