Ford does U.S. media blitz

He may have been stripped of most of his powers as mayor of Toronto, but Rob Ford is dominating the television airwaves — almost as much in the U.S., as in Canada.

This morning, ABC’s Good Morning America had an interview with the embattled mayor, and NBC’s Today featured an interview that Ford did with Matt Lauer.

Lauer: “I just want to make sure we all understand. You’re not in any alcohol treatment program?”
Ford: “No.”
“You’re not in any drug treatment programs.”
“I’m not in any drug treatment programs. I have a weight issue, I’ve been training every day. All I can say, Matt, actions speaks louder than words. I invite you to come back. Give me five, give me five or six months, and if they don’t see a difference, I’ll eat my words.”

Last night, CNN aired portions of an interview conducted late last week, in which Anderson Cooper 360 correspondent Bill Weir spent some time with the mayor and his brother at one of the housing projects in Etobicoke where the Fords are seen as heroes. But the interview turned tense when Weir tried to understand why Ford denied smoking crack for so long.

“He said, ‘do you smoke crack and are you a crack addict.’ No! I don’t smoke crack and I am not a crack addict. Have I? Yes I have. So that’s, I didn’t lie, I don’t smoke crack, I haven’t smoked crack in over a year.”

Weir’s response: “Come on, it’s semantics, mayor…”

CNN continued its coverage of the Ford controversy later in the evening on Piers Morgan Tonight. Former Toronto mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson told Morgan that Rob Ford is tarnishing Toronto with his continuing antics.

“I think people are saying is there a crack problem or a gang problem in Toronto and they fear that. I tell people, come to Toronto, we have a beautiful city. It is a safe city. It isn’t that way. He sort of defined us as that.”

And in an interview with the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge, Ford says he will never touch alcohol again.

Bonus video:

NBC Today interview:

CNN: Part 1 of AC360 interview:

Part 2 of AC360 interview:

Sarah Thomson on Piers Morgan Tonight:

Peter Mansbridge on CBC’s The National:

Editor’s note: ABC has chosen not to make online video of its Rob Ford interview available in Canada.