'I didn’t take this job to make a political future or career,' he says. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Defiant Grimm lashes out at media

NEW YORK — A defiant Rep. Michael Grimm, in his most extensive interview since federal prosecutors accused him of rampant fraud, accused the media on Tuesday of trying to destroy him and vowed to campaign hard for reelection — even as the New York Republican acknowledged his fundraising has dried up to the point he can’t air TV ads.

Insisting he’s not the “bad boy” of Congress, the former Marine and FBI agent suggested that GOP leaders including Speaker John Boehner were acting “politically” by refusing to back his reelection to a competitive Staten Island congressional district. Grimm, now literally running his own campaign after his lone full-time political aide departed last week, promised to prove his skeptics wrong.


“There’s no question: I’ve been vilified by the press since the day I got here,” Grimm said in a tense 22-minute interview at Hinsch’s Diner in Brooklyn. “From the very beginning they had to figure out how to get rid of this guy.”

( QUIZ: How well do you know Michael Grimm?)

Aside from denouncing the media, Grimm defended his record serving constituents and his aggressive personal style, but conceded he erred earlier this year when he physically threatened a reporter who asked about his legal troubles.

Though he called the 20-count federal indictment a “serious” matter worthy of media coverage, Grimm painted himself as the victim of a sensational, liberal press corps.

Constituents “are behind me now more than ever, because I get results,” the 44-year-old, two-term congressman said. “And yet the press focuses on the most ridiculous nonsense that I can dream about. Look, I’ll sum it up. What do I think of the press? I think, right now, and it’s been this way for two years: If I pass a burning building, and I stop and I run in and I save a baby, you know what the headline will be? ‘Grimm starts the fire.’ That’s just the reality.”

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Asked if he is innocent of the criminal charges, Grimm paused for four seconds, then chuckled softly.

“You know, uh. It depends on what you’re asking me of,” he said.

“But I’ll tell you this,” he continued. “What I’m guilty of is trying the hardest and giving 100 percent of myself and putting my heart and soul into representing the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn. But I do believe when all is said and done, I will be exonerated and I think the people that supported me will be proud that they did.”

Grimm appears increasingly isolated. At the Staten Island Memorial Day parade a day earlier, Grimm, unlike other politicians, did not march with other elected officials. About 75 yards behind, his Democratic opponent, former Democratic New York City Councilman Domenic Recchia, walked alongside Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a group of local lawmakers, some of them Republicans.

( QUIZ: How well do you know Michael Grimm?)

The National Republican Congressional Committee, meanwhile, recently removed Grimm from a fundraising event aimed at supporting the GOP’s most imperiled incumbents. Boehner has declined to endorse his reelection bid. And Grimm’s campaign manager, Bill Cortese, left last week.

The federal indictment accuses Grimm of defrauding the government by hiding some $1 million in sales and wages and employing illegal immigrants at a Manhattan fast-food restaurant he operated from 2007 to 2010. Among the charges are mail and wire fraud, hiring illegal immigrants and perjury.

Grimm, who sold his stake in the restaurant before taking office in 2011, pleaded not guilty and was released on $400,000 bail but has refused to give up his seat. Grimm did, however, relinquish his spot on the House Financial Services Committee.

The indictment has transformed Grimm from solid favorite to clear underdog in his reelection race against Recchia in the 11th District.

It is only the latest problem for a congressman who projected a a clean-cut, lawman image when he first arrived in Washington. Tales of Grimm’s renegade behavior have become the stuff of legend — from his alleged, FBI-years nightclub scuffle to the time he supposedly flashed a butter knife at a fellow House member.

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And then, of course, there was his infamous run-in with Michael Scotto, the TV reporter who Grimm threatened to toss over a Capitol balcony after the State of the Union. “I’ll break you in half,” Grimm told Scotto after the reporter tried to ask about the congressman’s legal troubles. “Like a boy.”

Grimm said he regretted the incident, but said it reflected his ongoing frustration with the press.

“My misstep with Michael Scotto, that’s on me,” he said. “I screwed up.”

But, ”I just felt it was another cheap shot….The way I look at it is, people say, ‘Well he doesn’t want to talk about this.’ The issues out there that are effecting my constituents are so much bigger than the nonsense that so many reporters want to talk about.”

Asked about his public image as the “bad boy” of Congress, Grimm flashed anger.

“No. You’re wrong. That’s the Washington image, because you’re in a bubble,” he said. “Look, the press picks up on, and my opponents pick up on, that I am aggressive. That’s not going to change, because I don’t care what the papers write. I’m aggressive, quite frankly, because Staten Island gets screwed all the time. And if I’m not aggressive, then I won’t be successful. That’s not being a bad boy. That’s doing my job.”

After he was elected, Grimm became known as a media-savvy lawmaker, a constant presence on TV who would bring his Yorkie, Sebastian, along to interviews. But in the weeks after his indictment, Grimm’s frenetic pace has come to a halt. With the exception of a radio interview he gave to Geraldo Rivera — in which the host praised the congressman as a “great guy” — and few remarks to the New York City and Capitol Hill press corps, Grimm has been mostly silent.

Shortly after the indictment, POLITICO submitted an interview request to Grimm’s office. About a week later, a Grimm spokesman said the congressman was interested. He agreed to be followed around for a day to a half-dozen constituent events and do a question-and-answer session. He declined a request to shoot video of him.

Grimm said he was prepared to run his campaign with or without the help of party leaders.

“The speaker’s gonna have to do what he’s gonna have to do politically. And I respect that. And whatever decision the NRCC or the party as a whole makes for political reasons, I have no problem with it.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he added. “It’s great to have support in Washington. But it’s a luxury. It isn’t a necessity.”

Grimm said that he had stopped raising money altogether recently and that he wouldn’t start soliciting cash again until June. It’s an unusual move for a congressman facing reelection in the expensive New York City media market. But people familiar with his campaign say it reflects the reality that fundraising while under indictment is essentially impossible.

At the end of March, Grimm had $1.1 million remaining in his campaign account, slightly more than the $1 million that Recchia reported.

Grimm suggested he wouldn’t need to air TV ads or send mailers to voters, and that he would instead rely on his retail political skills.

“There’s going to be much more constituent interaction,” he said. “There are some candidates that you don’t want to ever meet their constituents. So you basically make nice pictures, you make nice ads. And you keep them away from people because they lose votes.

“I don’t have to do that, and that’s what’s going to be different. I don’t need a bunch of glossy pictures of me. I just got to do what I do, and get out there and meet my friends and neighbors.”

Even as he swore off mailers, Grimm seemed to be preparing photos for them.

Grimm hired a campaign photographer to accompany him to his various stops on Tuesday — including to a veterans hospital, a senior center and a school for children with special needs. The congressman changed his shirt and tie several times during the day. When the photos appear, that will make it look as if he was campaigning on different days.

Grimm’s day of constituent glad-handing was aimed at portraying him as still active and involved in the community. At many stops, he was mobbed by supporters who assured him they were still behind him. At the hospital, he ran into Michael Hill, an Air Force veteran who the congressman has befriended.

“Hang tough,” Hill told Grimm as they embraced.

“I’m here,” Grimm responded.

“I’m here for you, too,” Hill said. “We’re here for each other.”

But the warm embrace has not offered by many fellow pols. At the Memorial Day parade, Jim Oddo, the Republican Staten Island Borough president, marching with Cuomo and Recchia, had cool words for Grimm.

“There are only 24 hours in a day,” he said. “There isn’t enough time to comment on that individual.”

Oddo called Recchia a “friend.”

Cuomo has yet to formally endorse Recchia, but there is little doubt where his allegiance lies. Asked about the Grimm indictment as he walked the parade route, the famously cautious Cuomo smiled and turned back toward Recchia, who was grinning ear-to-ear.

Whatever happens in the race, Grimm isn’t offering any apologies.

“My style, granted, is to break eggs, to step on toes,” he said. “I didn’t take this job to make a political future or career.”