The Toronto Sun released a bombshell story on Thursday, as it was provided clips from a video where embattled Toronto mayor Rob Ford was shown threatening to kill somebody while seemingly coked out of his mind. The Sun indicated that they were not in possession of the video, as the owner of the tape was in negotiations with another publication who wanted to purchase it. It turns out that the other publication was the Sun’s rival, the Toronto Star. The Star then released the tape in full. You can view it below:
UPDATE: The original video has been removed from YouTube. Below is USA Today’s report. (Sorry about the Auto Play.)
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Yes, that is actually a mayor of a major city, a city with a population of over 2 million people and a metropolitan population of over 5 million, yelling “I’m gonna kill that f–king guy. I’m telling you, it’s first-degree murder.” At this point, this type of behavior almost seems expected from Ford. On Tuesday, he admitted to smoking crack cocaine, an allegation that had been haunting him for months after it was revealed that a video tape existed showing him smoking the drug. Despite the embarrassment he’s brought upon himself and his city, he has been extremely defiant. He’s not only refusing to resign, but he’s stated that he plans on running for reelection.
In regards to this video, the conservative mayor had this to say to the Star:
“The Toronto Star just released a video that I was very, very inebriated. All I can say is, again, I’ve made mistakes. I just wanted to come out and tell you I saw a video. It’s extremely embarrassing. The whole world’s going to see it. You know what? I don’t have a problem with that. I hope none of you have ever or will ever be in that state. Obviously, I was extremely, extremely inebriated.”
Besides crack smoking and threatening to murder people, Ford has also been accused of groping a female mayoral candidate, of drunkenly shouting racial slurs at a Toronto cab driver and beating up staffers on St. Patricks Day and of harassing festival attendees while completely hammered. And that’s just stuff that’s happened in the last 18 months! It will be very interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks and months. Seriously, he can’t actually think he can run and get reelected, can he?
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
