Weiner aide apologizes for comments about former campaign intern

July 25: Anthony Weiner arrives with chief spokeswoman Barbara Morgan, left, who has been criticized after an interview she said she believed was off the record. (AP)

The communications director for New York City mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner's campaign apologized Tuesday night for verbally attacking a former campaign intern.

Barbara Morgan, in an interview with Talking Points Memo, used several vulgar expletives to describe Olivia Nuzzi, who penned an insider account in the New York Daily News describing a campaign in disarray.

Morgan reportedly said that Nuzzi "sucked" at her job and threatened to sue the former intern for criticizing her credentials in the tell-all piece. She employed an arsenal of other epithets to describe the former intern, including "sl--bag" and "tw-t."

"Man, see if you ever get a job in this town again," Morgan was quoted as telling Talking Points Memo.

The flap is another setback for Weiner, who recently acknowledged exchanging sexually explicit messages online after similar behavior spurred his resignation from Congress in 2011.

A new poll released Monday found Weiner's support fell from 26 percent last week to 16 percent.

In response to questions about the article, Morgan said she thought she was having an off-the-record conversation with the reporter.

"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 tonight when I called and emailed Olivia to apologize," she said in a statement.

Josh Marshall, editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, told The Wall Street Journal in an email that the conversation was "definitely on the record."

In her Daily News piece, Nuzzi wrote that Weiner often called interns "Monica," a reference to former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and that many people worked on the campaign to get close to Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin. Abedin is an ex-aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, Weiner released a new campaign video Tuesday evening saying he won't quit the race, despite calls from politicians and newspaper editors who have said he should quit.

In the one-minute video posted on his campaign's website, he said his critics don't know New York or him and that quitting isn't what New Yorkers do, they "fight through tough things."

He said in the video that when "embarrassing" things in a person's private life become public, the person should talk about it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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