Detroit's Kilpatrick: There is a 'movement to lock me up'
theGRIO REPORT - Disgraced former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick held court on a variety of subjects on Tuesday night, including his political future, as he promoted his new book...
DETROIT – Disgraced former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick held court on a variety of subjects on Tuesday night, including his political future, as he promoted his new book. Kilpatrick insists that he is no longer a politician.
“I don’t want to be your leader right now,” Kilpatrick said in front of an estimated 1,100 people at the Citadel of Praise church in northwest Detroit. ” I’m not running for nothing but cover. I’m working on Kwame being Kwame.”
The event, billed as “Real Talk with Kwame Kilpatrick”, was closed to local media cameras and moderated by Rev. Spencer Ellis. Ellis insisted that the interview was not a “pro-Kilpatrick rally”, but as he took the stage at the church, Ellis proclaimed, “he’s still your mayor.”
Kilpatrick talked about everything including his fall from grace, his incarcerations for obstruction of justice in 2008 and later violating his probation, to his feelings about the media, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and current Detroit mayor, Dave Bing.
“My biggest fall (from grace) is what I let happen to my character,” Kilpatrick said. “I thought that ‘Mayor’ was my name.”
Kilpatrick was at times reflective, honest, and combative. He would acknowledge responsibility for his 2008 obstruction charge, but later lashed out at the local media and judicial system and lay blame on them.
He insisted that no one “in the history of the United States of America” has ever been sent to prison for violating probation. He also claimed that there is “a movement to lock me up.”
About Worthy, the prosecutor who brought the original perjury and obstruction charges against him: “I have never deeply been mad at Kym Worthy. I haven’t hated her. As a matter of fact, I feel sorry for her.”
“If you have ever seen her on television, it looks like she hasn’t smiled in years.” He went on to mock Worthy’s facial expressions to the cheers of the people in attendance.
“I just believe her soul is hurting. I just think that Kym Worthy is not able to receive love. I think she’s hiding something deep smoldering misery inside herself. I think she’s hurting and she’s sick. I would much rather love on her and giver a hug and say ‘Baby, it’s gonna be alright!”
“She’s shown no cognitive abilities. She just went after a few dudes.”
Kilpatrick, who has been making the media rounds all over the country promoting his book Surrendered: The Rise, Fall & Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick, also had a few barbs to throw at Bing, who took over as mayor in 2009 after a special election.
Kilpatrick, who was 31 when he was elected in 2001, referenced how his youth was a positive and not a sign of immaturity.
“At 31-years-old, I married the city of Detroit,” Kilpatrick said. “The issue was that I didn’t think I was performing a job. I thought I was the job.”
“I was mature in the area of politics. I knew appropriations and budgets. I could go and close a deal and get hotels done. I could get streets fixed.
“This budget y’all got now (which is actually a $155 million deficit), I could go deal with it, get my people together and we could figure this thing out.”
He also referenced Bing’s age and noted that he may be too old to handle the rigors of the job. Bing was elected mayor at age 65 making him the oldest first-term mayor in history.
“He took the job at a late age,” Kilpatrick said. “If you ask Dave Bing, if he were going to be candid with you, he got in that office, and 6 months later he was going crazy. He’s aged right before your eyes.”
Kilpatrick said that Bing might have been “dynamite” at running his automotive supply company, Bing Steel, but mocked his ability to handle the stress of the job.
“He may be mature in one area, but we’re all hypocrites.”
Kilpatrick is awaiting trial on federal corruption charges in early 2012. On Monday, his longtime friend and former aide, Derrick Miller, admitted in federal court in a plea deal that he gave Kilpatrick bribe money, among other illegal acts.
Miller, a friend of Kilpatrick since their days at Cass Technical High School, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $200,000 fine after pleading guilty to bribery and tax charges. Kilpatrick insists that he is innocent of all charges and will be exonerated.
“I’ve never accepted a bribe,” Kilpatrick told the Detroit News on Tuesday. “I’ve never fixed a contract. I don’t even know how you would do that in the city of Detroit. And I don’t think they (the feds) do, either. I’ve never taken a payoff.”
“I not only proclaim my innocence, but the things that I’m accused of are absolutely false.”
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