Weiner Heckled On Campaign Trail

Surprise: It's about something important. Alas... he doesn't deal with it so well.
Weiner to Heckler: ‘Take a Hike’


By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: July 3, 2013


As the race for City Hall shifts from the podium to the sidewalk, unexpected topics pop up and polite scripts are abandoned. On Tuesday, Anthony D. Weiner, a Democratic candidate, was holding court outside a subway station on the Upper West Side when a young man in a green T-shirt began to berate him for his 2002 vote in Congress to support the war in Iraq. Here, a lightly edited transcript of their exchange.



WEINER: Sir, sir, simply because I am a candidate doesn’t give you a right to be disrespectful. All right, watch this, watch this! (He slowly turns his back to the heckler, in a conspicuous snub, and strikes up a conversation with an old woman.) How are you?

HECKLER: You should be ashamed of yourself!

WEINER: I’m ignoring you.

HECKLER: So Anthony Weiner, apparently, is afraid of free speech!

WEINER: Stop yelling at me.

HECKLER: You should apologize.

WEINER: You’re showing no respect. I am talking to somebody.

HECKLER: You showed no respect to our soldiers who died because of your shameful vote.

WEINER: You know what? I’m showing you all the respect you deserve.

HECKLER: You showed no respect —

WEINER: Cut it out! Stop with the show! You’re acting like a bozo.

(At this point, others in the crowd began to turn on the HECKLER.)

MAN: You made your point.

WOMAN: Did you ever serve in the Army or Navy?

WEINER: Take a hike! Take a hike!

HECKLER: You don’t show respect for the people.

WEINER: You are yelling at me. If you want to have a conversation with me, I am prepared to do it.

HECKLER: We deserve a mayor who had the judgment to vote against a war based on a lie.

HECKLER: Yeah, well —

WEINER: You really think I am going to be bullied by you yelling at the top of your lungs here? You think I would really stand for mayor if one person yelling is going to bully me? It’s not going to happen. I want to meet citizens. If you want to yell at the top of your lungs, keep doing it. I’m not going to be bullied by people like you, now or when I become mayor. If you want to have a conversation, I respect you enough to have a conversation. But yelling at the top of your lungs is not the New York way. We don’t roll like that.

MICHAEL BARBARO http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/nyregion/weiner-to-heckler-take-a-hike.html