Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on Friday responded to reports that he is shown smoking crack cocaine in a video being shopped around to media outlets, telling a group of reporters that the “allegations are ridiculous.”
Gawker’s John Cook on Thursday wrote that the video showed Ford “red-faced and sweaty, heaving with each breath” and smoking from a “clear, glass pipe.” Cook initially deemed the video owner’s asking price to be too high, but on Friday he launched a campaign to raise $200,000 to obtain the footage.
In his remarks on Friday, Ford said that the story was another example of the Toronto Star going after him, prompting a reporter to point out that Gawker had also reported on the video. The Toronto Star reported late Thursday that a pair of reporters at the newspaper have also seen the video.
Watch Ford’s remarks, via Gawker:
