Staten Island Representative Michael Grimm, who’s been abandoned by GOP leaders and is running his own reelection campaign after his only full-time aide quit, told Politico that he knows who’s to blame for his current predicament – and it isn’t himself for being the subject of a 20-count federal indictment. “There’s no question: I’ve been vilified by the press since the day I got here,” Grimm said during a short and “tense” interview at a Brooklyn diner. “From the very beginning they had to figure out how to get rid of this guy.” From the way reporters are hounding him, you’d think he threatened to toss one of them off a balcony and “break [him] in half, like a boy.”
Kidding aside, Grimm admitted that when a congressman is charged with perjury, fraud, obstruction of justice, and hiring illegal workers, among other charges, it warrants coverage. He also said he “screwed up” when he threatened NY1 reporter Michael Scotto on camera, but went on to complain that he and other members of the media only want to talk about “ridiculous nonsense.” “Look, I’ll sum it up,” said Grimm. “What do I think of the press? I think, right now, and it’s been this way for two years: If I pass a burning building, and I stop and I run in and I save a baby, you know what the headline will be? ‘Grimm starts the fire.’ That’s just the reality.”
Yet, despite this realization, Grimm could not keep himself from providing more media fodder. Per Politico:
Asked if he is innocent of the criminal charges, Grimm paused for four seconds, then chuckled softly.
“You know, uh. It depends on what you’re asking me of,” he said.
“But I’ll tell you this,” he continued. “What I’m guilty of is trying the hardest and giving 100 percent of myself and putting my heart and soul into representing the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn. But I do believe when all is said and done, I will be exonerated and I think the people that supported me will be proud that they did.”
Similarly, the press is mainly guilty of loving Representative Grimm too much.
