"Pictures get manipulated, pictures get dropped into accounts. We've asked an internet security firm and a law firm to take a hard look at this to come up with a conclusion about what happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again"
About this Quote
The intent is twofold. First, to deny without denying: he doesn’t claim the images aren’t his, only that their presence online could be the result of tampering. Second, to project competence and seriousness by outsourcing credibility. The invocation of "an internet security firm and a law firm" is a modern talisman: experts will translate the messy, human story into an audit trail, a report, an outcome. In politics, this is the bureaucratic version of taking responsibility while taking none.
The subtext is anxiety about proof. In the age of screenshots and metadata, denial has to keep pace with forensics. Weiner’s phrasing anticipates an evidentiary battle: if the content can be framed as hacked, altered, or planted, the moral narrative becomes contestable, and the political one becomes survivable.
Context does the heavy lifting. Weiner wasn’t just any politician caught in an online sexual scandal; he became a symbol of how private conduct, digital permanence, and public trust collide. The line "to make sure it doesn't happen again" is the tell: it treats recurrence as a security vulnerability, not a character flaw, betting that voters will accept a patch where they might not forgive a pattern.
Quote Details
| Topic | Privacy & Cybersecurity |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Weiner, Anthony. (2026, January 17). Pictures get manipulated, pictures get dropped into accounts. We've asked an internet security firm and a law firm to take a hard look at this to come up with a conclusion about what happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/pictures-get-manipulated-pictures-get-dropped-61956/
Chicago Style
Weiner, Anthony. "Pictures get manipulated, pictures get dropped into accounts. We've asked an internet security firm and a law firm to take a hard look at this to come up with a conclusion about what happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/pictures-get-manipulated-pictures-get-dropped-61956/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Pictures get manipulated, pictures get dropped into accounts. We've asked an internet security firm and a law firm to take a hard look at this to come up with a conclusion about what happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/pictures-get-manipulated-pictures-get-dropped-61956/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





