Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed unleashed another volley of insulting rhetoric in the race to succeed him, Tuesday, calling two political rivals “losers” at a City Hall press conference.
Asked about City Council President Ceasar Mitchell’s expected endorsement of Councilwoman Mary Norwood over Reed’s hand-picked candidate, Councilwoman Keisha Lance Bottoms, Reed unloaded. The mayor slammed Mitchell, who failed to make the runoff in the Nov. 7 general election, for not presiding over the council at its regular meeting Monday.
"So Ceasar Mitchell supporting Mary Norwood is one man, one woman, two losers," Reed said, eliciting laughter from assembled city staff at a press conference called about the sale of the Atlanta Civic Center to the city's housing authority.
Norwood’s camp demanded an apology from Reed and called on Bottoms to do the same.
“How dare the mayor use such offensive language about other people,” Norwood said in a statement. “This type of disparaging remark has no place in our civic discourse. He should be ashamed of himself. Resorting to smear demeans Atlanta and tarnishes our image. A mayor should be a role model, and when I am elected I will treat everyone with respect.”
ON TWITTER: MAYOR RESPONDS TO AJC STORY
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed unloaded on City Councilwoman Mary Norwood and Council President Ceasar Mitchell on Tuesday. Reed called his political rivals "losers” after being asked by a reporter his thoughts on Mitchell's expected endorsement of Norwood over Reed's favored candidate for mayor, Councilwoman Keisha Lance Bottoms. When Norwood demanded an apology, Reed said in a tweet that Mitchell and Norwood "are both losers." Here is the sequence of tweets from AJC reporter J. Scott Trubey and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed:
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