Congressman Michael Grimm (R-NY/Staten Island) felt a little tense after the State of the Union. After giving a terse statement to an NY1 reporter, he was asked about the ongoing issue of his campaign finance. He declined to discuss the matter and stormed off, then returned a moment later, apparently unaware that the camera was still rolling, and threatened to “throw [the reporter] off this fucking balcony.” Grimm followed this with “you’re not man enough, you’re not man enough. I’ll break you in half. Like a boy.”
Grimm’s campaign finance scandal dates to the 2010 election in which he allegedly solicited donations from his major donors for other Republican candidates, who had done the same for him in return — a “donor swap” arrangement that allowed him to skirt fundraising limits. Grimm is under investigation by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York for this, and for other finance irregularities, including accepting cash donations larger than $100, and for laundering a donation of $25,000 through a third party.
Grimm is a former US Marine who served in Iraq, and then worked for the FBI. While at the Bureau, he was investigated for abusing his authority: threatening his date’s husband (“I’ll fucking make him disappear where nobody will find him”) and pulling a gun in a nightclub. Grimm argued that reports of the incident were a “witch hunt” but the NYPD and FBi refused to release their files on the matter, and the New Yorker reporter who wrote the original story produced supplemental documents supporting his account.
Grimm is a Tea Party darling who was endorsed by Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani.
GOP Congressman Threatens to Kill Reporter After SOTU (Video)