D.C. Council chair gets into ‘screaming’ match with WTOP analyst

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the D.C. Council got into a “screaming” match with WTOP’s Mark Plotkin Thursday night, the political analyst says, following a segment on Fox 5 to discuss this week’s charges against Harry Thomas Jr. and other investigations in the District.

The Fox segment featuring Kwame Brown — in which the chairman said he would lead the “healing process” for the city — did not include the investigations he himself faces for allegedly misreporting thousands of dollars in campaign funds.

Plotkin pointed this out during his later segment, stating the accusations against Brown had “been alleged in charge.” Plotkin says Brown misconstrued that statement to mean he had been formally charged with a crime. Plotkin had stated on the Fox program that Brown had not been charged.

Brown then confronted Plotkin at the Fox studio, Plotkin says, and stood within an inch of his face and began screaming. Plotkin says he screamed back.

A few of Brown’s aides intervened, Plotkin says.

“It was very intense,” Plotkin said Friday on “The Politics Program.”

“By coming so close up to my face, [he] was trying in some way to provoke me, at least rhetorically,” he says.

Brown says he doesn’t think he “was physically aggressive with anyone.”

“I think at the end of the day we’re just going to continue to move forward,” Brown says. “I think Mark is a good guy…I’ve known him for a long time. And we look forward to working on issues together that relate to the city.”

Fox will not release the footage they taped of the incident.

In the second segment of “The Politics Program,” former Rep. Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., and Pete Teeley, former White House Press Secretary, joined Plotkin to discuss the presidential election season. Listen to the audio of that segment at right.

(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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