Anthony Weiner has some advice for Grimm

Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) has some advice for Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) about how Grimm should deal with the backlash from the threats made against a reporter this week. 

Weiner, who resigned from Congress in 2011 because of his sexting scandal, spelled out how Grimm should handle his own scandal in an opinion piece for the New York Daily News. 

“First, if you don’t want to talk about a scandal in which you’re embroiled, whatever that scandal may be, maybe it’s best that you don’t do interviews for a while,” Weiner wrote. “For that matter, you may not want to attend community meetings, visit your office or go a sporting event. Fact is, an investigation that’s hanging over your head is the kind of thing people might be curious about. People ask you about embarrassing stuff even when you want to talk about other things.”

{mosads}NY1 reporter Michael Scotto asked Grimm in an interview Tuesday night after the State of the Union to comment on allegations related to an ethics investigation into Grimm’s campaign finances. 

Grimm refused to respond to Scotto’s questions and instead threatened to throw him off of a balcony and said he would break Scotto in half. 

On Wednesday, Grimm apologized to Scotto.

The opinion piece notes Weiner had informed the FBI in 2010 about an allegation related to Grimm’s campaign finances. 

Weiner said that if you don’t want to talk about a fundraising scandal, don’t have one to begin with. Weiner admitted, however, that he hadn’t followed his own rules.

“I did a terrible job following these rules. I did embarrassing things and made them so much worse by being dishonest about them,” he wrote.

Most importantly, Weiner said people in public office must realize they have to remain accountable to voters.

“The basic deal of representative government is this: The people who get elected have to be held accountable by the people who pay their salaries.”