Washington: A Democratic congressman has found himself in the center of America's latest political storm after a lewd photo was sent from his Twitter account to a female college student.
The congressman, Anthony Weiner, denies he sent the waist-down photo showing a man's bulging underwear. But he says he does not know if the photo is of him. That uncertainty has kept alive a story that has dominated US cable news programme and Web sites for days.
The scandal is an embarrassing distraction for Democrats as they look ahead to the 2012 congressional and presidential races. It's also damaging for Weiner, a high-profile 14-year congressman who is considering running for mayor of New York.
Weiner, married recently to an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is one of the more prolific tweeters in Congress and he has more than 50,000 followers, a number that has grown the past two days.
After a combative news conference on Tuesday in which he refused to answer questions about the incident, Weiner spent Wednesday in a series of interviews trying to explain the situation. But some answers and his attempts at humour seemed to make things worse.
"We know for sure I didn't send this photograph," the seven-term congressman told reporters in the Capitol. But he told MSNBC he "can't say with certitude" that the photo wasn't of him.
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