Rep. Michael Grimm went ballistic on a TV reporter on camera Tuesday night after the State of the Union address at the Capitol — and threatened to throw him over a balcony and “break you in half.”
The Staten Island Republican was in the rotunda of the Cannon Office Building discussing on camera the president’s speech with NY1’s Michael Scotto when the reporter tried to ask him about recent campaign-finance allegations.
Grimm stormed off, and Scotto explained that he wanted Grimm to address financial shenanigans surrounding the congressman’s 2010 campaign. Seconds later, Grimm charged back and got in Scotto’s face.
“Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again, I’ll throw you off this f–king balcony,” Grimm said. “You’re not man enough. I’ll break you in half. Like a boy.”
Later, Grimm insisted that the reporter “took a cheap shot” at him.
“I was annoyed. I was doing them a favor,” Grimm told The Post. “The reporter took a cheap shot at the end and I verbally took him to task. I was angry and I had every right to be.”
Grimm said he was on a tight schedule and had previously told NY1 that he was only going to discuss the speech.
When asked about the balcony-throwing threat, Grimm would not deny it.
“He blew it out of proportion,” Grimm said.
A former Grimm staffer told The Post that the congressman was a hothead who takes his rages out on journalists.
“Grimm has anger issues,” the staffer said. “This is not the first time he’s tried to intimidate a reporter.”