In an unusually candid interview, Council President Charles Pugh acknowledged he was not cut out for politics.

The former Fox 2 News reporter said his plan was to serve one term as a councilman and then run for mayor. Not anymore.

“Being elected, you are under a microscope, you’re in a pressure cooker, everybody hates you,” Pugh said Wednesday on the Craig Fahle Show on WDET. The job is “for someone who can take darts and arrows and potshots from all over the place. I am not one of those people.”

Pugh, who has gained a reputation as a hothead intolerant of criticism, plans to return to broadcast journalism at the end of his term this year.

“What did you learn about your temperament?” Fahle asked, noting Pugh’s combative exchanges with critics.

“I learned that it requires the skin of a rhinoceros to do this job, and I have the skin of a wet tissue paper,” Pugh said. “I’ve been sensitive all my life.”

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Steve Neavling is an investigative journalist and former city hall reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Living on the city’s east side, Neavling explores corruption, civil liberties and the underbelly of an oft-misunderstood city.

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