NY Post Says Anthony Weiner Faked It. Crowds, At Events, That Is

Just because the Anthony Weiner story really needed to get sillier, the New York Post is reporting that Weiner's campaign hired actors from a "rent-a-crowd" service to artificially swell the size of his crowds at events:

Some of the gung-ho Weiner crowds, including at the Aug. 11 Dominican Day Parade in Manhattan, were really actors who were paid $15 an hour by the California firm Crowds on Demand, according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal.

Weiner's campaign denied hiring the company, insisting that enthusiasm for Weiner was naturally firm and needed no artificial enhancement.

The Post says that the Weiner campaign initially approached Crowds on Demand looking for people to "try and confront hecklers," but the company refused, fearing liability if one of their actors got beaten up, so instead,

The campaign asked the company to have actors seem “like either supporters or people who met him and became supporters as a result of that encounter,” the source said.

“The people would initially be skeptical and then they ask him various questions but would appear then to be convinced by his spiel,” according to the source, who said the campaign used Crowds on Demand “several times.”

 Improbably still-employed campaign spokeswoman Barbara Morgan insisted,

“We’ve never heard of this company and certainly never used them ... We are proud we’ve always had the biggest and most fired-up crowds. That’s enthusiasm the other campaigns just can’t buy.”

Baghdad Barb's statement was backed up by a flood of Twitter messages saying that Anthony Weiner is "much better than Cats ... we're going to come to his rallies again and again."

[ NY Post via Gothamist via the tipline]