Rob Ford concedes 'I'm not perfect' in defiant Today show appearance
Toronto mayor repeats desire to remain at his job in interview filmed hours after city council stripped Ford of many powers
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Rob Ford attends a council meeting at city hall where councillor Pam MacConnell was knocked over. Photograph: QMI Agency/Rex
Rob Ford, the corpulent, crack-smoking mayor of Toronto, has excused his drug use by saying it took place on one of many occasions when he had drunk too much. His former driver is a suspected drug dealer with ties to the Toronto underworld. He has divulged his predilection for oral sex in crude terms on television. And he began this week by barrelling into a female councillor at a city hall meeting in which he insulted people in the public gallery.
So it was with some understatement that Ford, who remains in office despite the exhortations of his former supporters to step aside, admitted on Tuesday that he was "not perfect".
"I embarrassed not just myself, my family, my friends, my supporters, the whole city. I take full responsibility for that," Ford said in an interview with the Today show on NBC, in which he repeated his explanation that he was "very, very inebriated" when he smoked crack.
A few hours before, Ford was stripped of many of his powers at a chaotic city council debate that crystalised the predicament in which Toronto's elected representatives find themselves. Before the vote was taken, Ford sprinted around the council chamber and accidentally knocked a female councillor to the ground. His brother Doug, also a councillor, got into a brawl with members of the public at the meeting. And in a menacing turn of events, he had his current driver-cum-security detail film people in the gallery against whom he took exception.
"We've all made mistakes, Matt," Ford told the Today show. "I'm not perfect. Maybe you are, maybe other people are. I've made mistakes, I've admitted to my mistakes."
Toronto's city council voted to cut Ford's office budget by 60% on Monday. He will no longer chair the council's executive committee and has been left with significantly reduced powers. Not that he had that many in the first place - unlike in other big metropolitan cities, Ford is merely the leader of the city council.
He remains nominally the city's mayor, though, despite being investigated by police after reports surfaced of a video showing him smoking crack cocaine. The mayor had denied the allegations for months before admitting that he had used the drug during a drunken binge. As a result of the police inquiry, his former driver, Sandro Lisi, faces charges of drug dealing and extortion.
Lauer asked the mayor if it was "supposed to make anyone feel better" that Ford had said he was drunk when he smoked crack cocaine.
"No not at all, but show me the video," Ford said.
Asked why the video mattered, Ford said: "Because I want to see it. I can't even barely remember it. I was very, very inebriated."
Ford denied that he had "played a game of semantics" when initially answering questions about his crack cocaine use, and insisted he was not an addict.
"I'm not [addicted to crack cocaine], and they said: 'Do you use crack cocaine?' No I don't use crack cocaine. No. Have I tried crack cocaine? Yes I've tried crack."
Ford has said he is seeking medical help, but told the Today show that he was not getting treatment for drink or drug addictions, but instead was working out "every day" in a bid to lose weight.
Toronto's council does not have the power to remove the mayor unless he is convicted of a crime. Ford was asked what would happen if "something terrible had happened to the city of Toronto", such as a terrorist attack, while he was binge drinking.
"I'm very fortunate that hasn't happened. It's very few isolated incidents that it's happened. And you're absolutely right I'm very fortunate that hasn't happened," Ford said.
"But that could happen with anybody at any time. Say you were gone out drinking or you were drunk, say something happened to your family [...] Say your son or daughter just got killed in a car accident and you're plastered out of your mind at three in the morning. Are you going to be able to handle that?"
Ford said he "absolutely" still wants to be mayor. Ford has repeatedly been urged to resign.
During the council meeting on Monday Ford paced around the chamber animatedly, engaging in exchanges with members of the public. At one point he knocked a councillor, Pam McConnell, to the ground as he bowled towards the gallery. Ford helped McConnell, who is in her 60s, to her feet and later said he had been racing to the defence of his brother.
Some of Ford's former staff members have told police that he drank heavily and sometimes drove while drunk. Last week the mayor was criticised after he said he had "enough to eat at home" when responding to allegations that he had performed oral sex on a female staff member.