Top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has been given an ultimatum: dump serial-sexting hubby Anthony Weiner, or get out of Clintontown.
“Huma has a choice to make,” a close associate tells New York magazine. “Does she go with Anthony, or does she go with Hillary?”
Abedin’s decision over whether to leave the “Clinton bubble,” where she’s seen as Hillary’s most trusted aide, has emerged as “the biggest question among Hillary’s circle” as the former Secretary of State mulls a 2016 run for the White House, the magazine reports.
The Clinton camp was blindsided by revelations over the summer — during Weiner’s disastrously failed New York mayoral run — that he’d kept up his secret online sexting even after resigning from Congress in shame in 2011. Abedin was quickly advised to keep her distance from her scandal-scarred mate, and vanished from Weiner’s side for the rest of the campaign. The candidate’s bird-flipping parting shot to reporters after his humiliating defeat this month made a bad situation even worse, according to New York.
In July, Weiner was forced to admit he’d continued his X-rated shenanigans well into 2012 — using the handle “Carlos Danger” as he traded photos and sex talk with at least 3 women after one of them, Sydney Leathers, came forward with details of his debauchery. Abedin awkwardly stood by her man as he made the confession, but quickly caved to pressure from the Clinton camp – which feared being tarnished by Weiner’s tawdry addiction – to stop campaigning for him. She didn’t accompany her husband to the polls on election day, and was reportedly hunkered down with friends in the Hamptons as Weiner went down in flames when the results came in.
“Abedin has struggled to reconcile her marriage to Weiner with her role as Clinton’s top aide, traumatized by the prospect of leaving her boss’ inner circle,” the magazine reports, citing a person familiar with the situation.
Abedin is also under scrutiny for consulting work she did for an investment bank run by Bill Clinton’s longtime right-hand man, Doug Band, and another gig she had with the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation while still being paid as a government employee.
Abedin’s tough choice comes as Hillary Clinton, out of the official public office spotlight for the first time since 1992, considers her own options.
While Clinton-backers push her toward a 2016 presidential run, Hillary says she’s enjoying her version of kicking back, and running the Clinton family’s foundation with Bill and Chelsea.
“We get to be at home together a lot more now than we used to in the last few years,” Clinton told New York’s Joe Hagan, in her first extensive interview since leaving the State Department post. “We have a great time; we laugh at our dogs; we watch stupid movies; we take long walks; we go for a swim. You know, just ordinary, everyday pleasures.”
“It feels great,” she said, “because I have been on this high wire for twenty years, and I was really yearning to just have more control over my time and my life, spend a lot of that time with my family and my friends, do things that I find relaxing and enjoyable, and return to the work that I had done for most of my life.”
While she was Secretary of State, Bill Clinton took a back seat, barely registering on staffers’ radar, according to one aide.
“He had a very minimal presence in her time at the State Department,” the insider told the magazine. “It’s kind of jarring when she says ‘Bill.’ We, who’s Bill? And then you realized that she’s talking about her husband. It happened so infrequently that you were kind of like, Oh, the president.”
Hillary said her spouse doesn’t spend his days hassling her about making a White House run, noting, “I don’t think even he is, you know, focused on that right now. Right now, we’re trying to just have the best time we can have doin’ what we’re doin’.”
Asked is she wrestles with running for president, Hillary said, “I do. But I’m both pragmatic and realistic. I think I have a pretty good idea of the political and governmental challenges that are facing our leaders, and I’ll do whatever I can from whatever position I find myself in to advocate for the values and the policies I think are right for the country.”
“ I will just continue to weigh what the factors are that would influence me making a decision one way or the other,” she said.
But confidantes insisted Hillary has no choice but to enter the race.
“She’s running, but she doesn’t know it yet,” one source said. “It’s just like a force of history. It’s inexorable, it’s gravitational. I think she actually believes she has more say in it than she actually does.”
“She’s doing a very Clintonian thing,” another insider said. “In her mind, she’s running for it, and she’s also convinced herself she hasn’t made up her mind. She’s going to run for president. It’s a foregone conclusion.”