Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, already facing a public relations nightmare from recent admissions of smoking crack, has a new hit to deal with — a video that’s making the media rounds that shows him in a drunken rage, threatening to kill an unknown individual.
The video, which contains many curse words, was first obtained by the Toronto Star. In it, Mr. Ford staggers and rants: “I’m going to kill that [expletive] guy. I’m telling you, it’s first-degree murder. … He dies or I die, brother.”
He then throws his hands about and continues, CNN reported: “When he’s down, I’ll rip his [expletive] throat out. … I’ll poke his eyes out. … I’ll make sure that [expletive] is dead.”
Mr. Ford’s response?
He said he was intoxicated at the time — and while embarrassed, wants everybody to see it.
“All I can do is reassure the people that I don’t know what to say,” he said to reporters, CNN said. “It’s extremely embarrassing. The whole world is going to see it. I don’t have a problem with that. … Obviously, I was extremely, extremely inebriated. That’s all I have to say.”
The context of the video, or when it was shot, is not known.
Mr. Ford is not stepping down from office, despite his admission in the last few days that he did in fact smoke crack cocaine — and that was after he steadfastly denied doing so. The crack cocaine allegations surfaced when two Toronto reporters said they had received and viewed a video of the mayor doing the deed, and police later extracted images they said were in line with media accounts of the tape.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.