The local reporter accosted on camera by New York Rep. Michael Grimm after the State of the Union said Wednesday morning that he’s never seen a politician as angered by a question as Grimm.
“He did seem angry, he seemed angrier than I have ever seen a politician talk to a reporter about a question that he or she didn’t like,” NY1 reporter Michael Scotto said Wednesday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
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Scotto’s exchange with Grimm became famous Tuesday night when, during a live shot, Scotto asked the New York Republican a question about an arrest of a friend of his for alleged straw donations. Grimm said he wouldn’t answer questions about his campaign finances and walked off, but then returned to berate and threaten Scotto.
“I was taken aback,” Scotto said Wednesday. “I’m used to people giving me pushback for questions, but I was not used to something like that. He basically came over to me, as you saw, and said that if I ever do something like that again, he would throw me from the balcony.”
Scotto said Grimm did not physically touch him, but Grimm appeared to get in Scotto’s face in the partially off-camera exchange.
The reporter said the Republican has been ducking questions from his colleagues as the longtime probe into Grimm’s campaign has changed in recent weeks with the arrest of his friend.
“The investigation’s been going on for a couple of years, but it was just in the last two weeks the investigation’s been heating up,” Scotto said. “We really haven’t been able to talk with him on camera about that. We’ve had reporters go to events of his on Staten Island, and they’ve been unable to talk to him about it. So he was there talking about the State of the Union, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to ask him a question that we’ve been trying to ask him for almost two weeks now.”
Scotto said he wasn’t going to take any further action against Grimm.
“I’m going to leave it as is. I think the tape speaks for itself, so I’m just going to leave it the way it is,” Scotto said.
In a statement after the incident, Grimm said he had been doing the reporter a favor.
“I verbally took the reporter to task and told him off, because I expect a certain level of professionalism and respect, especially when I go out of my way to do that reporter a favor. 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,” Grimm said.
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