Transcript of Mayor Rob Ford’s remarks to reporters Monday after his press secretary, George Christopoulos, and deputy press secretary, Isaac Ransom, abruptly resigned amid a deepening scandal.

Mayor Rob Ford: “First of all I want to start off by apologizing to each and every one of you about derogatory comments I made on my radio show with respects to the media. I’m sure you understand that this has been a very stressful week for myself and my family but that doesn’t justify using the terminology I did to describe the media. So I sincerely apologize to each and every one of you. I understand you have a job to do. It’s been bothering me a lot. I know we agree and disagree on some issues, most of the time, some of the time, but it’s time to move on.

Secondly, I want to inform you that George Christopoulos and Isaac Ransom have decided to go into a different avenue, or down a different avenue. And I was informed about this at approximately 12 o’clock noon today and I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours and I thank them for working hard in this office. And that’s it, it’s business as usual. We have our executive committee tomorrow and we’re just soldiering on. There’s going to be one minor move that I’m making — I’m bringing Amin Massoudi, Doug’s executive assistant, and he’s going to be communications director moving on, in my office as of today.”

(Why did they resign?) “I don’t want to get into personnel issues. I never get into personnel issues, as you know, and it’s better maybe for them to answer that. I just want to thank them for their work and, I’ve always told everybody that’s ever worked for me, be it at Deco, I should say worked with me, be it at Deco or be it at city hall, if an opportunity comes up, go, please, take advantage of it. This is a huge stepping stone. As you see I have a young staff and it’s is great experience for them but I’m not going to hold anyone back from moving on to and for future endeavours or opportunities that they might have.”

(You’ve lost three staffers in less than a week. What’s going on in your office?) “Again, I’m not going to comment on personnel issues. We’re going to move on. Amin Massoudi has agreed to come over and he has a lot of experience, as you know, and obviously these are opportunities that, they might have a great opportunity. I wish them all the best, I wish them all the success and that’s all I’ve got to say.”

(It seems like Mark (Towhey, the chief of staff Ford fired last week) George (Christopoulos) and Isaac (Ransom) all disagreed with how you are handling this scandal.) “Again, I’m not going to get into personnel issues. I’m not going to get into personnel issues. You keep talking about my staff. I’ve addressed the staff. I think I’ve been very clear and straightforward. I wish them the best of success, that’s all I can say right now …”