http://youtu.be/VsjlNNsChZ4

From the Toronto Star:

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has admitted that he used crack cocaine while in office.

“Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine,” Ford told reporters outside his office. “But no, do I, am I an addict? No. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago. I answered your question. You ask the question properly, I’ll answer it. Yes, I’ve made mistakes. All I can do now is apologize and move on.”

Ford said he did not know the exact circumstances of his crack use.

“I don’t even remember,” he said. “Some of the stuff that you guys have seen me, the state I’ve been in? It’s a problem.”

Ford’s bombshell concession may end his political career. He said in May that he does not smoke crack — using the present tense — but steadfastly refused to answer when asked repeatedly if he had ever smoked crack or done so while in office.

“I wasn’t lying. You didn’t ask the correct questions,” he said. “No, I’m not an addict and no I do not do drugs. I made mistakes in the past and all I can do is apologize but it is what it is. And I can’t change the past and I can apologize to my family, my friends, my colleagues and the people of this great city.”

More from GawkerNow, CBC, the Canadian Press, the Globe and MailBBC and the Associated Press via the New York Times.

Phew!