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Rapper scuffles with Mitt Romney on plane
The Associated Press
A rapper with the Grammy-nominated club act LMFAO says former Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney first touched him — and not the other way around — during a confrontation aboard an Air Canada flight that was preparing to take off from Vancouver.
Sky Blu, whose given name is Skyler Gordy, said in a video posted Friday on TMZ.com that he was trying to go to sleep when he leaned his seat back in the coach section of the Vancouver-to-Los Angeles flight on Monday.
He said Romney loudly told him several times to straighten it, as is required until takeoff under commercial flight regulations. Then, he said, Romney reached forward and grabbed his shoulder.
"I just react — boom — get off me, you know," Gordy says in the video, taking a swing through the air as he speaks. "And I didn't take it any further than that. I just wanted the man not to touch me; that's it."
Gordy said Romney's wife, Ann, screamed and that the plane returned to the gate before two police officers escorted him off. After being detained briefly, he was allowed to buy a ticket for another flight.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom had no comment Friday about whether Gordy was the man with whom Romney had the confrontation, but aides said this week that Romney told them he thought the other person was in a band.
Christine Wolff at Interscope Records confirmed that Gordy made the video, which also was posted on the group's website.
Air Canada referred calls to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Sgt. Rob Vermeulen confirmed there was an incident on the flight, but he refused to release the names of those involved because no one was arrested.
© The Canadian Press, 2010
The Associated Press
A rapper with the Grammy-nominated club act LMFAO says former Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney first touched him — and not the other way around — during a confrontation aboard an Air Canada flight that was preparing to take off from Vancouver.
Sky Blu, whose given name is Skyler Gordy, said in a video posted Friday on TMZ.com that he was trying to go to sleep when he leaned his seat back in the coach section of the Vancouver-to-Los Angeles flight on Monday.
He said Romney loudly told him several times to straighten it, as is required until takeoff under commercial flight regulations. Then, he said, Romney reached forward and grabbed his shoulder.
"I just react — boom — get off me, you know," Gordy says in the video, taking a swing through the air as he speaks. "And I didn't take it any further than that. I just wanted the man not to touch me; that's it."
Gordy said Romney's wife, Ann, screamed and that the plane returned to the gate before two police officers escorted him off. After being detained briefly, he was allowed to buy a ticket for another flight.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom had no comment Friday about whether Gordy was the man with whom Romney had the confrontation, but aides said this week that Romney told them he thought the other person was in a band.
Christine Wolff at Interscope Records confirmed that Gordy made the video, which also was posted on the group's website.
Air Canada referred calls to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Sgt. Rob Vermeulen confirmed there was an incident on the flight, but he refused to release the names of those involved because no one was arrested.
© The Canadian Press, 2010