Video: Ford brothers open up on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
TORONTO – Mayor Rob Ford has headlined Canadian news reports often in the past year, particularly since the now-infamous crack video allegations surfaced. But Ford has reached a new height of celebrity with an interview that will appear Monday night on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, following a featured Fox News segment on Sunday.
In an interview with CNN’s Bill Weir (above), Toronto’s mayor and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, take the reporter to the “heart of Ford Nation,” near Toronto’s Pearson airport in what the report describes as the “Queen’s Plate projects.”
It’s here where Weir calls Ford a rock star (“no pun intended,” says the voice track) and encounters many of the supporters, young and old, that make up Ford Nation.
When Weir asks why Ford decided to admit to having smoked crack, Ford answers he’s “not going to run around and be phony and lie.”
READ MORE: Here’s everything Rob Ford has said about crack video allegations
The CNN reporter then suggests Ford did “run around” for months, and Ford replied that he didn’t trust what that Toronto Star prints.
“I was sick and tired of all these allegations and all this bulls**t and excuse my words—that’s all it is,” he said, then appeared to remember there were children in the room. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have sworn in front of the kids, but you know what? I made mistakes.
“I drank too much. I smoked some crack some time. What can I say? I made a mistake. I’m human.”
READ MORE: Rob Ford’s apologies — Stop us if you’ve heard this one before
Ford then repeated some statements familiar to those who’ve kept up with Canadian media coverage: that he never lied about smoking crack since reporters had been asking the wrong question, and that media has been spinning the story, and “attacking” Ford’s integrity.
He called “rich, elitist” people the “biggest crooks around” and described himself as the “best father around.”
In a Sunday interview on Fox News, Ford told John Roberts that he is now seeking “professional help.”
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“I am training every day. I’m in a gym for two hours every day. I’m seeking professional help. I am not an alcoholic, I am not a drug addict. Have I had my outbursts in the past? Absolutely I had, John. But you know what? I’m only human. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve apologized. That’s all I can do.”
Roberts said Ford refused to go into detail when asked if the professional help included substance abuse treatment.
The American media attention started on late-night comedy shows last week, which led up to an opening segment on Saturday Night Live.
READ MORE: Rob, Doug Ford love the (American) media
Ford will also be a topic on the upcoming Rick Mercer Report, where the Canadian comedian suggests Ford would be on the streets “barking at parking meters” if he didn’t have “family and money.”
“He’s gone from being a car crash to a 10-car pile-up, to a scene in a disaster movie where space junk flies out of the sky, crashes into an overpass, it tumbles over, crushes a busload of singing nuns.”
READ MORE: Rob Ford drug scandal makes international headlines
The Ford brothers will also star in a TV show on Sun News TV called “Ford Nation.”
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