New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner is already on thin ice with voters and an explosive argument with a heckler on the eve of Rosh Hashanah didn’t do anything to help that. The entire argument was caught on tape, with the heckler referring to Weiner’s wife as an “Arab” and Weiner insisting on asking the man who he is to judge him.
The incident was posted on NYCElects.com, which notes that the incident took place at a Borough Park bakery, just hours before Rosh Hashanah started. It began when the Jewish man in the bakery called Wiener as “scumbag” as he left. While Weiner could have just walked away, he instead decided to spin around and the shouting began. “Very nice, very nice, in front of kids. That’s a charming guy right there,” Weiner said with food in his mouth.
“You are disgusting, disgusting,” the man, identified as Saul Kessler by the New York Observer, replied. Kessler insisted that Weiner should drop out, considering his sagging poll numbers and the sexting scandal.
“Yeah, it takes one to know one, jackass,” Weiner replied. “What’s that? What’s that? You wait until I walk out to say anything, that’s courage, that’s courage!”
The Observer notes that Weiner’s aids tried to pull him back, but Weiner continued the argument, constantly asking the man who he is to judge him.
“I’m not running for office, I’m not out there in the public,” Kessler said. “Think about your wife. How could you take the person you’re closest to and trusts you and betray her?”
“You don’t get to judge me because you have shown no signs of being superior to me and you are not my God!” Weiner yelled.
Weiner’s campaign actually issued its own video of the incident, in which Kessler can be heard referring to Huma Abedin, Weiner’s wife, as an “Arab.” He also calls Weiner a “scumbag.”
According to the NY Daily News, Weiner later shrugged off the incident, calling it an “enthusiastic exchange with a voter.” He added, “If you’re going to say vile things about me and my family, you can expect I’m gonna go back at you.”