It’s not the crack-smoking footage we’re all waiting for, but the Toronto Star paid an unknown sum for a different cellphone video featuring what certainly appears to be Rob Ford in one of his self-proclaimed drunken stupors. The highlight: “I’m gonna kill that fucking guy. I’m telling you, it’s first-degree murder,” Ford can be heard saying in the gibberish-filled video.
The context of Ford’s outburst is unknown but, by nearly all accounts, isn’t exactly out of character. Or, as the Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington, who got an early look at a snippet of the video, explains rather dryly: “The [behavior] is … consistent with several conversations I’ve had with Ford in which he used similar inflammatory vernacular.” An unidentified source that confirmed the clip’s legitimacy to the Sun painted a similar picture during a half-hearted attempt at damage control:
A source close to the mayor confirmed it is Ford in the video and that it “looks a lot worse than it really is” since “he sometimes goes off on tangents” and a few minutes later everything is fine.
According to the Sun, the full video was being shopped around earlier this week by someone asking for “thousands of dollars.” The Star acknowledges that it paid for the clip, but isn’t saying how much. The video’s obviously embarrassing for Ford—who I remind you is the mayor of North America’s fourth-largest city—but it doesn’t seem worse than, you know, smoking crack with suspected drug dealers. It is also arguably no worse than some of the things Ford’s done when he knew the camera was rolling.
I can’t embed the Star clip, but you can go check it out here.
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