The Staten Island congressman who threatened to break a TV reporter in half and toss him off a balcony says Mayor de Blasio may not be “ready for primetime.”
Asked by WABC radio host Geraldo Rivera Wednesday about de Blasio and the City Council boycotting New York’s massive St. Patrick’s Day Parade for organizers’ treatment of gays, Republican Rep. Michael Grimm said de Blasio is “is going to have a lot of these hiccups along the way.
“He’s primetime. I’m not sure he’s ready for primetime,” Grimm judged.
Rivera — who supports Grimm’s re-election bid — questioned him about his menacing of NY1 Washington Correspondent Michael Scotto after last month’s State of the Union Address.
That night, Scotto tried to ask Grimm a question about investigations of his campaign finances when the lawmaker cut him short and walked out of the frame. As Scotto sent it back to the studio from the U.S. Capitol, Grimm — as the camera continued to roll — came back and threatened to throw the young newsman a beating.
“You know, I could’ve responded the same way, I might’ve even gone the next step and actually have done it — but I’m glad you didn’t, and I’m glad you apologized,” Rivera told Grimm, who initially sent out a defiant statement but later said his behavior was inappropriate and asked forgiveness.
“At what point did [you] realize that threatening to throw the reporter off the balcony was, like, a bad move?” Rivera later asked, chuckling.
It took a good hour, Grimm said: “The reality is i’m Italian-Irish, born in Brooklyn, played hockey my entire life, so when I get pushed around, you push back. It’s how I was raised.”
The congressman followed up by saying he was in a rush that night — and NY1 knew it — and that he was frazzled from rushing to the interview to do the “local station” a solid by giving them the first interview.
“But bottom line is, that’s an explanation. I don’t believe in excuses. There is no excuse,” Grimm said. “I was wrong. That’s why I had to apologize.”
The two proceeded to share their mutual love and admiration for Scotto and his relatives — raising the possibility of sitting down with the NY1 correspondent at the family restaurant.
As for the parade, Grimm said he himself will be there, but far more important, he stressed, is the de Blasio’s attention — or lack thereof, in his opinion — to the victims of Hurricane Sandy still awaiting help and information on Staten Island.
“He has to make that a priority and he hasn’t done so so far… I am very disappointed that there was basically no mention of it in his budget,” Grimm said, adding that when de Blasio visited Borough Hall Monday to speak with local officials about storm recovery, “he had no answers about anything.”
Grimm said he hasn’t yet been able to score a personal meeting with Hizzoner about Sandy, but he’s “hopeful” that they’ll be able to get down to cases.
(We are awaiting a response from City Hall on that one.)
Grimm, who’s facing Democrat Domenic Recchia in a fight for the Staten Island/Brooklyn district, predicted a commanding victory.
“If you have to worry about the last six, eight weeks before an election, then you probably weren’t doing your job anyway and you probably shouldn’t be re-elected,” the incumbent said.
Rivera asked how Grimm — who said he’s worked across the aisle with colleagues from Maxine Waters to Gregory Meeks — will deal with “the Democrats on Staten Island really trying to make you the ‘face man’ for [House Speaker] John Boehner.”
“I’ve stood up against my party so many times, it’s caused me more problems from the right than it has the left,” Grimm insisted.
“You know, we got your back, dude,” Rivera said to close.
IMAGES: ELISA MILLER, JAMES KEIVOM/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
