White House: Weiner scandal is a 'distraction'

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama believes U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner was wrong to send a lewd picture of himself over Twitter and then lie about it, and the continuing scandal surrounding the New York Democrat is a distraction from important national business, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.

Obama himself later strongly suggested Weiner should step down, telling NBC in an interview that if he were in the congressman's position, he'd resign.

"Obviously, what he did was highly inappropriate," Obama said in the interview, scheduled for broadcast Tuesday. He added, "Ultimately, there's gonna be a decision for him and his constituents. I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign."

Obama went on to explain his thinking, saying that "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."

The comments by Carney and then Obama were the first by the administration since the scandal broke in late May.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/RblIpLESzzI/index.html

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