After President Obama’s State of the Union Speech, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) rushed to tell an NY1 television reporter that he found the speech divisive. When the reporter asked Grimm about a brewing controversy over his campaign finance practices, the second-term Congressman and former FBI agent threatened to throw the reporter off a balcony if he ever did so again.
NY1 reporter Michael Scotto was referring to an ongoing federal investigation into whether Grimm illegally solicited and accepted contributions from foreign donors, offered to help a foreign national get a green card in exchange for campaign cash, and filed false campaign finance disclosures. A new report last week also suggested that he may have engaged in a controversial — and potentially illegal — “donor swapping” scheme, circumventing campaign contribution limits by having donors make contributions to a different campaign and then having that candidate transfer the money.
At the end of the interview Tuesday, Scotto broached the topic. Grimm quickly cut him off, saying he would not speak “off-topic” and walking off camera. When Scotto noted to the television audience that Grimm “does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances,” Grimm confronted the reporter with the cameras still rolling:
GRIMM: “Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I’ll throw you off this ****ing balcony.”
SCOTTO: Why? I just wanted to ask you…
GRIMM: If you ever do that to me again…
SCOTTO: Why? Why? It’s a valid question.
GRIMM: No, no, you’re not man enough, you’re not man enough. I’ll break you in half. Like a boy.
Grimm issued a statement Tuesday night calling Scotto’s question a “disrespectful and cheap shot” and observing “I doubt that I am the first Member of Congress to tell off a reporter, and I am sure I won’t be the last.” He did not apologize for his threats.
NY1″s political director charged Wednesday that Grimm’s “bizarre and scary rant” was “not an isolated incident,” but rather “part of a pattern in which the congressman has tried to avoid questions from NY1 about an ongoing probe into his campaign fin
really don’t realize just how far removed they are from reality. 