WASHINGTON (AFP) ? US President Barack Obama on Monday said that if he were in disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner's place, he would resign over the sending of lewd photos to women in online exchanges.
"I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign," Obama said during a brief interview with NBC News, his first public comment on the latest sex scandal to roil the US Congress and his Democratic Party.
"When you get to the point where, because of various personal distractions, you can't serve as effectively as you need to, at the time when people are worrying about jobs, and their mortgages, and paying the bills, then you should probably step back," Obama said.
He added, however, that whether Weiner remained in office or not after his "highly inappropriate" behavior was ultimately up to the married New York congressman and his constituents.
Weiner has faced a flurry of calls from within his own Democratic Party to resign after lying about a series of online conversations with women in which he sent lewd photos, including one of his underwear.
After lying about his X-rated Internet liaisons for days, insisting that hackers had infiltrated his Twitter account, Weiner called a nationally televised press conference last Monday and made a tearful admission.
He said he had been sending pictures online and sexting with six women, but refused to stand down as a New York congressman, saying he had neither met the women nor had a physical relationship outside his marriage.
On Friday, news emerged that he had been exchanging private messages, again through the micro-blogging website Twitter, with a 17-year-old girl.
And on Sunday new pictures were released by the TMZ gossip news website that Weiner appeared to have taken of himself, including one in which he is wearing a towel and clutching his crotch.
They appeared to have been taken in the House gymnasium, which could add further momentum to the calls for Weiner to resign.
In a bid to save his career, Weiner announced on Saturday that he was taking a "short leave of absence" from Congress to seek treatment, but Democratic leaders have been relentless in calling on him to step down.
"This is bizarre, unacceptable behavior," number two House Democrat Steny Hoyer told CBS's "Face the Nation" program on Sunday.
"I would hope that Mr. Weiner would use this opportunity to reflect upon whether or not he can effectively proceed. I don't see how he can, and I hope he would make that judgment."
Democrats are on the defensive, after Republicans dispatched a GOP lawmaker from New York caught in similar behavior this year within hours after the scandal broke.
Republican Christopher Lee in February was forced by party elders to resign after it emerged that he had sent flirtatious emails to a woman he met on Craigslist, including a photo of him flexing his bare chest.
If Weiner rides out calls for his resignation, he could stand for reelection next November, and polls of his New York district showed that he continues to have considerable support.
Hoyer underscored the political stalemate, suggesting that removing Weiner against his will could involve a protracted and messy legal battle.
"Any process, a judicial process through the ethics committee, is going to take time. I really don't know that we have that time."
Weiner is married to Huma Abedin, a hugely popular aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Former president Bill Clinton presided over their July 2010 nuptials. Abedin, 35, is pregnant with the couple's first child.
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