Rob Ford embarks on U.S. media blitz amid ongoing scandal

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford participates in a heated exchange during an interview with CNN.

In the face of growing calls for his resignation, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is defending himself south of the border, telling U.S. media outlets that he's not an addict and has no plans to resign.

Ford recently spoke to CNN's Bill Weir for an interview that aired on the Anderson Cooper 360 show Monday night.

In a portion of the interview that took place in the recreation room of the Toronto Community Housing project on Queen’s Plate Drive, Ford told Weir he is “sick and tired” of the allegations against him.

“I’m know what I’m doing is right, I’m serving the people, I’m saving the taxpayers’ money, and you know what, I made mistakes, I drank too much, I smoked some crack some time,” Ford said.

But he maintained that he doesn’t have a substance abuse problem.

"I'm not an addict; you guys can spin it, you can tell me all you want," Ford said, before asking Weir if he's ever "got drunk before."

When Weir responded that he's not the mayor of a city, Ford said: "It doesn’t matter. I don't look at myself as the mayor, I look at myself as just a normal, regular person."

And he told Weir he doesn’t care how he’s perceived around the world. “They can laugh at me all they want, they don’t know Rob Ford,” he said.

Weir, who was invited by the Ford brothers to witness the love for the mayor in the housing project, said it was “a little disconcerting to see wealthy, fiscal conservatives treated like heroes in a project filled with people living on government assistance.”

But Doug Ford said the public doesn’t interpret his brother’s politics correctly. “Everyone keeps saying Rob is a conservative. He’s a huge, massive social liberal. He loves Obama.”

And the councillor hopes to “bring Ford Nation live just right across the city,” despite admitting to not having any political allies.

“We never had any in the beginning, we’re the power of the people; I’ll tell you one thing, I’ll work day in and day out to knock these councillors off,” Doug Ford said.

Ford also told CNN he's "the best father around," and he plans to be "straightforward" with his children when it comes to the ongoing controversies that have surrounded him.

"I don't walk away from anyone in life," he said. "All of these rich, elitist people -- I'm sick of them, I'm sick of them.

"They're perfect, they don't do nothing. Get out of here, they don't do nothing -- they're the biggest crooks around."

When he was asked why he repeatedly denied smoking crack cocaine in the six months leading up to his stunning admission, Ford said he wasn't lying at the time.

"I didn't lie. I don't smoke crack," he told Weir. "I haven't smoked crack in over a year."

When Weir charged that was just semantics, Ford said he was putting a media spin on his words.

"It's typical media. You guys are the same, you're all cut from the same cloth."

After the segment aired, Weir told Anderson Cooper that Ford has the “sort of impulse control I think of a young boy.”

Ford also used his appearance on the talk-show circuit to issue a challenge to members of Toronto's city council to undergo a drug test.

"I'll do a drug test and an alcohol test right now and I put a motion forward that every councillor do it too," Ford said Sunday on a recorded episode of his new Sun News Network TV show, airing its inaugural episode today.

Ford used his new show to thank his supporters. "It's humbling. I want to thank my supporters for sticking with me. I guarantee you going to see a change in the next few months."

In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Ford maintained said he is seeking professional help, but he wouldn't go into details about the type of treatment he will receive.

"I am not an alcoholic. I am not a drug addict," he told Fox News' John Roberts. "Have I had my outbursts in the past? Absolutely I have, John. But I'm only human; I've made mistakes, I've apologized, that's all I can do."

Ford also said he has greater political aspirations and he'd like to be prime minister one day.

But despite his intentions, the mayor's support base appears to be eroding in the city, thanks to some of his public remarks in the last few days, according to the vice-president of polling firm Ipsos-Reid.

"I think the last few days of him coming in and saying that he's going to stay the course, and certainly his remarks at the end of the week, have probably dashed a lot of that," John Wright told CTV Toronto. "I think this is a mayor who is running on fumes."

In the latest Ipsos-Reid poll conducted for CTV News, Newstalk 1010 and CP24, 48 per cent of those surveyed said they believe Toronto is on the right track despite the Rob Ford scandal.

The survey also looked at how trustworthy political figures and personalities were. It found that:

665 Toronto residents were surveyed in the poll, which had a margin of error of 4.3 per cent.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Jon Musselman