NY congressman threatens TV reporter on the air

Generally speaking, it’s probably a bad idea to threaten someone in front of cameras. That are rolling.

And yet Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., didn’t seem to care as he threatened to throw a reporter off a balcony at the Capitol after Tuesday night’s State of the Union address said recorded threat is going viral.

New York cable TV reporter Michael Scotto asked Grimm about a federal investigation into his campaign finances.

Grimm walked away but came back after Scotto signed off. He got in the reporter’s face and said, “You ever do that to me again I’ll throw you off this (expletive) balcony.” He also threatened to “break (Scotto) in half.”

The Associated Press reported that Grimm released a statement that he was “extremely annoyed” with Scotto and probably wasn’t the “first member of Congress to tell off a reporter.”

An update on Wednesday from NY1 News said that Grimm has now apologized to Scotto via phone call, “after initially saying he did nothing wrong.”

“I apologized. I called Michael Scotto. He was very gracious and accepted my apology,” Grimm said. “We’re going to have lunch sometime next week and just make sure this is all behind us.”

Grimm, a former Marine, grew up in Queens, NY.

Let’s start the “leave the gun, take the cannoli” jokes.