New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, who exited the Democratic primaries this week with just five per cent of the vote, gave his car-crash campaign one final twist last week.

Mr Weiner lost his cool during a campaign trail stop at a kosher bakery in Brooklyn’s Borough Park when a customer heckled him for being “married to an Arab” and accused him of being “deviant”.

Mr Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, is a Muslim and was raised in Saudi Arabia. She is a close aide to Hillary Clinton and made headlines for standing by her husband during a series of “sexting scandals”. Mr Weiner has confessed to sending sexually suggestive SMS and Twitter messages to young women, some under the alias “Carlos Danger”.

The altercation happened as Mr Weiner was leaving the Weiss Family Bakery on the eve of Rosh Hashanah after picking up honey cookies and iced coffee. A man wearing a yarmulke called the scandal-prone politician a “scumbag”. Mr Weiner shouted back: “Takes one to know one, jackass”.

The shouting match was captured on video, which went viral.