Single Mom on Receiving Sexual Photos From Weiner
Meagan Broussard tells her side of the story
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," June 7, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Meagan Broussard, the woman responsible for helping to expose the shocking truth about Anthony Weiner, sat down with me last night for a candid discussion about her relationship with the congressman and much more. Here's part one of that interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: So, you caught up in this media whirlwind a little bit.
MEAGAN BROUSSARD, HAD ONLINE RELATIONSHIP WITH REP. WEINER: Right.
HANNITY: It is surprising to you?
BROUSSARD: Very surprising.
HANNITY: Why?
BROUSSARD: I just have no idea how I ended up in all this. But obviously, I did. So, I'm just here to tell my side of the story. And get things straight.
HANNITY: You actually wrote, I thought a pretty powerful statement that was on BigGovernment.com. And you described, you are 26-years-old?
BROUSSARD: Uh-huh.
HANNITY: OK. You served in the Army, full-time college student. You're a single mom.
BROUSSARD: Right.
HANNITY: And then you tell the story, you saw something about Anthony Weiner. When did he first catch your attention?
BROUSSARD: It was actually just, you know, a simple YouTube video of him, that I saw. It was the rant about the 9/11 health care bill. I said wow, that is interesting that someone is that passionate about something. Just to see, you know, a politician because I don't pay attention to politics, really. But that just caught my eye. So, I though, huh.
HANNITY: And so, you kind of admired it?
BROUSSARD: Sure.
HANNITY: And did you know when he was giving the speech that he was a congressman?
BROUSSARD: I knew, obviously, I knew he was in politics. But I didn't know his background in-depth, no.
HANNITY: Right. All right. So, you, it was April, I mean, really was not long ago, April 20th was the date, that you clicked on his Facebook page.
BROUSSARD: Well, I liked something. And then I put a comment with it, "hot."
HANNITY: Right.
BROUSSARD: And so, he friended me. It was nothing, you know.
HANNITY: And then who introduced who? Did he then go from there and introduce himself to you?
BROUSSARD: Yes. We just corresponded back and forth, just, you know, chatting, that's it.
HANNITY: All right. It started out as just friendly. And then it became daily. OK. Tell us how that evolved?
BROUSSARD: Just, you know, I mean, chatting every day. You know, hey, how are you doing? Good morning, good night, that sort of thing. I don't want to get like too in-depth about what we actually talked about, because it is not important. All I'm saying is that, yes, we corresponded, we talked.
HANNITY: Right. And I guess what the big issue here is, you know, your name came up in the press conference. What did you think when you heard your name?
BROUSSARD: Wow. I was like -- just unbelievable. But, you know, what? I came forward because I was approached. And, you know, I'm telling, you know, nobody is going to pull the rug under me before something comes out. I'm going to define me, so that's why I'm here.
HANNITY: And you saw that he had hired private eyes and that worried you?
BROUSSARD: Exactly. Yes. Because I mean, he did have photos of me, not risky photos, nothing, you know, rated R. But still, anybody can get those photos and leak them, and that's my life, and my personal life. So, I'm going to take charge of that.
HANNITY: All right. So, when all of a sudden, the conversations as we know it then became pretty sexual in nature, from him. You thought, you even said that you thought that was strange, that was bizarre.
BROUSSARD: Yes, I did. But, you know. Everybody has their own demons, we'll say but...
HANNITY: Did you think -- when this was happening, did you ever think this is a congressman and, you know?
BROUSSARD: I just thought it was crazy. Nuts.
HANNITY: And it was very explicit at times?
BROUSSARD: Sometimes, a little bit. But I mean, this isn't someone I openly engaged in like, we call it "sexting." You know, it wasn't like that. It was just like, hey, throw some stuff out there, see if I took the bait. I wasn't interested really, so.
HANNITY: Right. And then all of the sudden, how many photos total between the different accounts that he had that you know that he sent you?
BROUSSARD: I'm not sure, maybe five.
HANNITY: All right. And we've now seen most of them. And we know what the other ones are. But the first one he sent, you were like, wait a minute, this isn't really the congressman. And then, he sent you the picture with him pointing at him with the word "me" on it. And you could see that he had a wedding ring. Did you notice that?
BROUSSARD: Uh-huh. I mean.
HANNITY: What did you think then?
BROUSSARD: It didn't cross my mind because I'm not married, so.
HANNITY: Yes. But did you think at that point, uh-oh, this is a little inappropriate, he's married? Did that run through your head at all?
BROUSSARD: Well, I was, you know, this was through the computer. So, I had no intentions of meeting this man, you know.
HANNITY: Right.
BROUSSARD: At that time, I was just talking to him.
HANNITY: Right. And then the second photo was him, I guess with his cats and then he used the vernacular, the sexual vernacular for cat.
BROUSSARD: Uh-huh.
HANNITY: And did you take it that way? Did you think that.
BROUSSARD: Yes. I thought, OK, weird but...
HANNITY: And when he sent you a picture -- because there seems to be incremental.
BROUSSARD: Uh-huh.
HANNITY: And when he sent you the picture of him with his shirt off, what did you think of that?
BROUSSARD: I don't know. I mean, I was just kind of like wow! You know, this is all a little overwhelming. But at the time I was like wow, you know, that is kind of out there, daredevil.
HANNITY: And you even said that to him in some conversation, what did you say to him?
BROUSSARD: I just, in reference to him that, you know, I'm not as open as you are, you know, talking about certain things. And he just said, you know, I'm open. I'm an open book. Maybe too open is what he said, so.
HANNITY: But one statement that came out was apparently he was sending you hundreds of messages, would that be an accurate statement of a sexual nature?
BROUSSARD: You know, not always. They weren't, you know always like that. But, you know, most of the time it was hey, how are you doing? You know, and it went on from there.
HANNITY: Yes. And then, there is another photo that is totally explicit of his private parts. Not underwear which was the first thing that came out. You have any doubt it is from him?
BROUSSARD: No, I mean, I know it is from him but...
HANNITY: Because that came up in the press conference yesterday. When that photo came in. Because this really happened over a short period of time. When that photo of his private areas came in, you know, you're a 26-year-old girl.
BROUSSARD: Right.
HANNITY: This is a 46-year-old congressman that's recently married. What did you think then?
BROUSSARD: You know, I just thought at the time there's got to be something. There's way more girls out there. This is not just me. There's nothing like, oh, this is so special about me that, you know, there's just lot more girls, what I thought the time like, this is something that regularly, he's done all the time. He's comfortable.
HANNITY: He said in his statement that this was with the one that first came into question was from this woman in Seattle. And he used the term it was meant to be a joke. And then he admitted that there were at least six women. One of which is you. Do you think that's a joke? I mean.
BROUSSARD: No.
HANNITY: When you don't know somebody?
BROUSSARD: No. But that's a lot of the reason why I never did any X-rated photos.
HANNITY: How about phone conversations?
BROUSSARD: Just one. It wasn't explicit. It was just hi, hello, it's me. Because I didn't believe it was him. So, I said, OK, call.
HANNITY: And so he called. So, you thought maybe it was somebody like on the Internet, everyone is anonymous?
BROUSSARD: Yes, you know, I just, I don't know who he could be, but you know, I kind of knew who he was a little bit. But I didn't know how powerful he was or what he really was, what he did, you know.
HANNITY: At some point, did you want to cut it off because maybe --
BROUSSARD: Sure, I mean, I didn't talk to him all the time. He would, you know, message me. But I just thought, you know, just strange. I don't have time all day long to sit on Facebook. Even though your phone stays logged in, OK, you may have a green dot there that says you are logged on. But you know, I have a life outside of this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: And coming up. In part two of my interview with Meagan Broussard, I'll ask her if she has anything she'd like to say directly to Anthony Weiner.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: And yesterday, Anthony Weiner finally told the truth and revealed that he has had inappropriate Internet relationships with at least six women. One of them, 26-year-old Meagan Broussard sat down with me last night to tell her side of the story. Here is now part two of our very candid discussion. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: Did you learn anything about this? I mean, this probably has opened your eyes a lot in terms of what goes on?
BROUSSARD: Oh, yes. Just that, you know, it's just a crazy world out there. And I will be so much quieter and so much more introverted about everything I do. And, but it is not going to define who I am or anything like that.
HANNITY: Yes. Do you think this has the ability to damage people? In other words, when people are that aggressive, did you feel it -- and then the story becomes public. And all of a sudden here you are, from a pretty small town. And being in the media is not your favorite thing?
BROUSSARD: Sure.
HANNITY: And you know, did you ever think at some point, oh my God, I'm in the middle of this, what am I going to do? You know, what are people going to be thinking about this? That's got to be racing through your mind. Try to bring us into that whole thought process.
BROUSSARD: The only thing that really picked me up was a thought that OK, I have to get, you know, in control of those pictures. You know, for my own safety. You know, that's the main thing for me. And so, I think that really helped me a lot.
HANNITY: In control of his pictures or your pictures?
BROUSSARD: My pictures that he was in possession of.
HANNITY: Pictures of you?
BROUSSARD: Right. Because, you know, anybody, especially the people that are supposedly looking through his e-mail can leak any of that, you know, what I'm saying, there's a lot of.
HANNITY: But this is important, but you never sent anything explicit.
BROUSSARD: Right, I'm talking about the photos, just of me. You know, I mean, there's PG-13 ones. But nothing that I was ever be embarrassed about. But do I want to splash all over? No. But it probably will, but, hey, I'm here to say...
HANNITY: Yes. But, you know, it may not. I mean, you see the only person, you and him would be the only ones in possession of them. So, if they ever came out, they would have come from him.
BROUSSARD: Or someone that is pilfering through his e-mail inbox like he said that firm. So, that's what I'm talking about, the firm that was supposedly investigating that. You know, people do stuff like that all the time.
HANNITY: Well, if you had to say anything to him tonight, would you say, please keep my photos and our conversations private or?
BROUSSARD: Sure. I mean.
HANNITY: You would want him to do that?
BROUSSARD: Sure.
HANNITY: You think a person that would send this to a young girl, somebody said at the press conference, maybe young enough to be his daughter, you know, that maybe he has really poor judgment?
BROUSSARD: I mean, I would, but you know. I'm not God. But I would say, you know, if you are elected to Congress, you know, what are you doing all day long, sitting there?
HANNITY: And if he does this on multiple occasions, doesn't it show a certain recklessness on him?
BROUSSARD: Sure.
HANNITY: And a pattern? What do you think of the pattern knowing as one of the people that sort of victim of it in a way.
BROUSSARD: I wouldn't say victim. But I would say, I don't know, I mean, he obviously has some issues with impulse control or something, you know. Something he has to feel wanted in some way. So, and this obviously fulfills him. Maybe he's searching for something, I don't know. I can't speak for him.
HANNITY: But if you are going to be a congressman and your judgment is in question. And you have impulse control issues. Oh, I know, the other photo -- wasn't the other photo, the original one that was leaked to the press of him in his underwear?
BROUSSARD: Oh, yes.
HANNITY: OK. He sent you that one, too. And, you know, you are looking at this, you are 26-years-old, and, you know, you are still pretty young. And a congressman is doing that. Do you conclude maybe that he might not be -- when he didn't resign, did you think maybe it was appropriate for him to resign?
BROUSSARD: I'm not going to go into all that. It is up to him, you know. And whoever elected him, how they feel about that and...
HANNITY: How did you first get contacted by ABC?
BROUSSARD: A mutual friend did.
HANNITY: And said what?
BROUSSARD: Just threw it out there. There was like, these people want to talk to you.
HANNITY: Right. And did you -- you were unhappy with their coverage, because why? You were.
BROUSSARD: I just feel like certain, you know snippets were taken out. You know, and I don't "sext" people all day long. I don't do this all the time. I have a life. I go to school. I have a child. I work. You know?
HANNITY: You don't sit on the Facebook all day.
BROUSSARD: Yes. I don't sit at Facebook all day long and dream about people I can talk to. So, yes, I just thought that, you know, I didn't realize the whirlwind that this was going to bring. I didn't understand all that. You know, I'm from a small town, that doesn't mean I'm dumb. But, you know, I'm not used to all this.
HANNITY: I was thinking. I tried to put myself in your position in this way. United States congressman is writing me almost every morning for a while. How are you? What is going on?
BROUSSARD: Well, I didn't think it was him, you know.
HANNITY: But you did find out at one point it was him?
BROUSSARD: Sure.
HANNITY: And then he sends you the pictures. I don't know.
BROUSSARD: I honestly thought, OK, he's going to get hemmed up, I just knew that.
HANNITY: You knew it was going to happen, you know it was inevitable.
BROUSSARD: Yes. Because I just knew.
HANNITY: How are your family and friends reacting?
BROUSSARD: They are OK. I mean, I didn't do anything wrong. And everybody knows how I am as a person. I'm pretty straightforward and I'll tell you what's up. So, that's why I just, you know, came forward to just let people know.
HANNITY: All right. Well, we appreciate you sitting down with us. Thank you very much.
BROUSSARD: Sure, you're welcome.
HANNITY: We appreciate it. Thanks, Meagan.
BROUSSARD: Uh-huh.
HANNITY: Nice to meet you.
BROUSSARD: You too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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