The battle for Mayor of Atlanta has gotten ugly. The current Mayor, Kasim Reed has a bunch of things to worry about in his last few months as Mayor of the city. You would thin that the last thing on his mind would be who his successor would be. But when asked about one of the candidates for Mayor, Reed went into full campaign mode.
When asked about the I85 situation, Reed was reminded of a comment Senator Fort made about Reed.
“Vincent Fort says thanks for leaving that rainy day fund for when he takes office,” a reporter told Reed.
“You and I should bet a dollar on a dozen doughnuts that he doesn’t qualify for the office of mayor,” Reed replied.
Reed went on to speak about Fort’s financial problems and asking Mayor Reed to gift his son with a job and saying that he would be a disaster as mayor just as he was a disaster in the Senate.
Senator Fort would respond soon to Reed’s comments. Speaking with 11Alive, Fort responded to the accusations and gave his reason as to why the Mayor would be so harsh on him.
On why the mayor had such harsh words for him:
“I believe City Hall has lost its way. I believe City Hall has forgotten about regular people. It’s more concerned with billionaires and mega-projects. I assume that the mayor doesn’t like that message — that City has lost its way, but I firmly believe it. This isn’t about personal attacks. This is about what we can do for the people of the city of Atlanta.”
On Reed’s comment that Fort “used his senate position and sat in my office, right there in that chair, and pleaded for a job for his son?”:
“This mayor knows what he is seeing is at variance from the truth. I’m not going to get into specifics of that. I’m not going to divert my attention from serving the people of Atlanta.”
When Shirek asked if Fort asked the mayor for a job for his son, Fort said, “It’s more involved than that. I’m not going to get into specifics of conversations between myself and the mayor. The fact of the matter is, he knows that my son was an employee at the City of Atlanta, did his job, did it well and was well-liked by his co-workers.”
On Reed’s attacks of Fort’s personal finances:
“The fact is that he can make whatever personal attacks he would like. This is about the people of the city of Atlanta and who is going to best serve them. The fact of the matter is City Hall has problems. There are three criminal investigations going on, and I understand why the mayor would want to talk about me as opposed to what’s happening at City Hall. I say City Hall has lost its way. The U.S. Attorney and the Department of Justice and the F.B.I. agree with me. That’s why the mayor wants to talk about me and not talk about what’s best for the people of Atlanta.”
Senator Vincent Fort was one of the first candidates to speak up for the decriminalization of cannabis in the city and has promised to bring it Atlanta if elected.