Mayor, Warmington have ‘unique’ relationship, Doug Ford says after allegedly profane phone call

ABOVE: Mayor reportedly lashes out at Toronto Sun columnist. Jackson Proskow reports. 

TORONTO – Councillor Doug Ford says the mayor has a ‘unique relationship’ with the Toronto Sun columnist he reamed out over the phone, telling him “I am so f—— mad at you right now,” Joe Warmington claimed in a Monday column.

“They like each other. They had a disagreement. It’s very simple. They have a unique relationship. Joe is one of the few reporters that can call Rob any time,” Councillor Ford said Monday to reporters at city hall. “They have a unique relationship. Joe calls Rob at 10 o’clock at night, calls him all the time. Rob calls him back. They got in a little tiff, no big deal.”

The mayor however refused to answer questions about the phone call, telling reporters at city hall the phone call was a “private conversation.”

Listen: Rob Ford says the call between him and Warmington was “private.” 

“In terms of it being a private call, which is what he said, I didn’t perceive it that way,” Joe Warmington said in an interview Monday.

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Councillor Ford brushed off suggestions it was inappropriate of his brother the mayor to swear at Warmington and suggested the columnist has access to the mayor few other reporters have.

He also suggested, as he’s suggested when the Mayor’s come under fire before that Toronto’s media are trying to blow the situation out of proportion.

WATCH: Councillor Doug Ford speaks to reporters at city hall on Monday. 

Warmington said he received the call on Sunday evening as he was eating dinner. Initially, Warmington said, the mayor seemed confused as to who he was speaking to, causing Warmington to clarify for the mayor who he was. Then, he said, the mayor berated him.

“I thought it was a little over the top and I didn’t know really what to do about it but I felt to be fair to all you guys, that I should report it. And that’s all I did.”

Warmington, a columnist with the Toronto Sun, wrote about the phone call in an article published Monday morning claiming the mayor swore and criticized a column Warmington wrote last week.

“’I am so f—— mad at you right now,’ he screamed, berating me over the line.

When I told him ‘I don’t care,’ he became even more enraged.

He said ‘I am so f—– -angry’ several times as I stepped away from the dinner table to take the surprise call.

It seems he was upset about my Thursday column,” Warmington wrote in the Toronto Sun.

Share this on X Click to share quote on X: "'I am so f—— mad at you right now,' he screamed, berating me over the line.</p><p>When I told him 'I don't care,' he became even more enraged.</p><p>He said 'I am so f—- -angry' several times as I stepped away from the dinner table to take the surprise call.</p><p>It seems he was upset about my Thursday column," Warmington wrote in the Toronto Sun.

In that column, Warmington criticized the mayor for condemning without investigation a city employee who was accused of sleeping on the job. Warmington asked rhetorically if the mayor would want to be condemned for his actions without proper investigation.

“In the future, or perhaps retroactively to hockey-game-gate, Garrison Ball-gate, Ass-gate, TTC bus-gate, robo-gate?” Warmington wrote.

But Councillor Ford said Monday that neither the mayor nor Warmington are mad, adding that “next week, Joe will be writing a great article on the mayor. Mark my words.”