After President Obama's State of the Union address last night, a reporter attempted to question New York Rep. Michael Grimm on 2010 campaign finance allegations—and faced a threat in return. NY1 reporter Michael Scotto interviewed the Republican in the Capitol Rotunda about the speech, the New York Daily News reports; at the end of the chat, which was pre-arranged, Scotto began to ask an unrelated question. That prompted Grimm to walk away, leaving Scotto to tell viewers, "So Congressman Michael Grimm does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances … he, as you saw, refused to talk about that." That's when Grimm returned.
- "Let me be clear to you—you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this f-----g balcony," he said to Scotto in a whisper that was still caught by the mic. "Why, why, I just wanted to ask you…" Scotto responded. "It's a valid question." Grimm went on to tell Scotto, "You're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy," reports NY1, which has video.
In a statement last night, Grimm said Scotto "insisted on taking a disrespectful and cheap shot ... I verbally took the reporter to task and told him off, because I expect a certain level of professionalism and respect." NY1's political director called for a "full apology" from Grimm, calling the threat "extremely disturbing." Grimm later obliged; Scotto this morning
tweeted that Grimm had called to say he "overreacted," and that he had accepted the apology, the
Washington Post reports. Grimm's ex-girlfriend was recently arrested over allegedly fishy campaign donations, the
Daily News notes; Grimm hasn't been charged with any violations, NY1 reports. (More
Michael Grimm stories.)
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