Weiner aide sorry for expletive-laced tirade against intern

The chief spokeswoman for embattled mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner has apologised after she went on an expletive-laced tirade about a former campaign intern in an interview with a political news website.

Barbara Morgan said she believed her interview with Talking Points Memo was off the record when she described a former campaign intern as a “fucking slutbag”, “tart” and “little c***”.

Talking Points said it contacted Morgan for an unrelated story when Morgan launched into her attack on Olivia Nuzzi, who wrote an unflattering first-person article for the Daily News about her experience working on Weiner’s campaign

Nuzzi wrote that Weiner often called interns “Monica”, a reference to former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and that many people worked on his campaign only to get close to Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, who is an ex-aide to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and thus “secure a spot in her 2016 bid for the presidency”.

Nuzzi also said many of the campaign staff had “short resumes”, including Morgan, noting that the communications director “last worked as the press secretary for the New Jersey state education commissioner”.

Morgan said Nuzzi was bad at her job and threatened to sue her.

“She was clearly there because she wanted to be seen. ... she would just not show up for work,” Morgan said, adding that she tried to fire Nuzzi but “gave her a second chance” when Nuzzi begged to come back.

Nuzzi stopped interning for the campaign about four weeks ago, Morgan said. Later, she issued an apology.

“In a moment of frustration, I used inappropriate language in what I thought was an off the record conversation. It was wrong and I am very sorry, which is what I said when I called and emailed Olivia to apologise,” she said.

Last week, Weiner acknowledged exchanging sexually explicit messages online after similar behaviour spurred his resignation from Congress in 2011.