Kevin Wolf for New York Daily News
Rep. Michael Grimm walks to his Cannon House Office Building office on Wedesday, Jan. 29, 2014 at the Capitol in Washington. (Kevin Wolf for New York Daily News)
Hot-headed Congressman Michael Grimm tried to play nice Wednesday, apologizing for his shocking threat to "break" a NY1 reporter "in half" and toss him over a balcony.
Facing a storm of outrage, the Staten Island Republican phoned his regrets to reporter Michael Scotto, suggested the two have lunch, and then offered a public mea culpa outside his Capitol office.
"My Italian mother is gonna be yelling at me saying, 'You weren't raised that way,' and she's right," the two-term Republican from Staten Island said.
"The bottom line is, sometimes I wear my emotions on my sleeve," he said.
"I was wrong. It shouldn't have happened." Grimm's meltdown occurred at the end of an interview with Scotto about President Obama's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night.
Grimm walked away — and then stormed back — after Scotto tried to get in a question about a criminal investigation of the congressman's fund-raising.
"Let me be clear to you. If you ever do that to me again, I'll throw you off this f-----g balcony," Grimm said.
When Scotto protested, Grimm leaned in and said, "No. No. You're not man enough. You're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy."
As the incident exploded across the Internet, Grimm initially cast himself as the victim, saying Scotto was unprofessional — but no one was buying it. NY1 demanded an apology, and Mayor de Blasio called for House leaders to sanction Grimm. "You don't threaten to throw reporters physically.
A leader can't do that. And if the leader does that, those in power, those in the leadership structure, have to speak out," de Blasio said.
And the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint charging that Grimm violated an ethics rule requiring that members act "at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House."
But after Grimm spoke to Scotto Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is considered no fan of Grimm's but wants Republicans to hold onto Grimm's seat, said that he would take no action.
"Rep. Grimm has apologized, and the speaker believes that was appropriate," an aide said.
Scotto told The News that he was "shocked" by Grimm's threats, but "not particularly frightened."
"I didn't think I was going to fall over the balcony, as some people have asked me today," he said. Scotto, who has worked for NY1 since 2000 and is a cousin of WNYW/Fox 5 anchor Rosanna Scotto, said Grimm's tone was "friendly" when the congressman called to apologize.
"I got the sense that he just wanted to move past this." Scotto said.
But Democrats were not. Grimm's expected opponent in November, ex-City Councilman Dominic Recchia, launched a fund-raising appeal off of Grimm's blowup.
"This is a competitive district, one in which I think Democrats already had a good chance to pick up . . . and (Grimm has) given his opponent even more reason to help voters make the right choice," national Democratic Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said.
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