WATCH: Harvey Weinstein Praises Mike Bloomberg in 2013 Video

February 8, 2020February 8, 2020 Patrick London

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has some explaining to do, after video of him being thanked by disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein resurfaced.

In 2013, Harvey and his brother Bob were honored at the “Made in New York” Awards, an initiative by Mayor Bloomberg to build the city’s entertainment production industry. Video from the event, which has been online since that time, has resurfaced after a clip of the video was posted to Twitter by Comfortably Smug and reported by The Daily Caller.

In the video, Weinstein is seen thanking Bloomberg for helping to save his production company when it fell on hard times. He is even seen making a dirty joke, which takes on a darker, creepier tone given the producer’s current criminal trial in New York, where he is accused of raping two women.

“The reason Bob and I became fond of independent foreign films is because when we were 14-year-old boys and our hormones were raging, we saw an ad for the Mayfair movie theater…and it said ‘The 400 Blows,’ and we thought it was something else,” Weinstein is heard saying in the video.

During the June 10, 2013 ceremony, Weinstein says Bloomberg’s personal intervention helped him during a difficult time.

He even states that Bloomberg “dropped a lot of things” to help him out.

“We’ve had tremendous years, but about four-and-a-half years ago there was a bump in the road,” the disgraced movie mogul said. “I called our mayor, and I just said, ‘You know, things are a little topsy-turvy here at the company, you know, we’d be moving jobs to California and we don’t want to leave New York City.’ And the mayor, extremely busy as he was with so many more important things, dropped a lot of things and got it done for us.”

Weinstein went on to praise Bloomberg’s efforts on his behalf. “The mayor’s there in a big way. The mayor was there in a visual way, and I don’t think Bob and I would be on this stage if the mayor wasn’t there for us, so thank you mayor.”

While Bloomberg may claim he was not aware of the sex crimes Weinstein would eventually be accused of, the truth is the producer’s reputation for sexual harassment was the worst-kept secret in Hollywood for years.

Indeed, just last month, Hillary Clinton claimed she had no knowledge of Weinstein’s reputation or crimes, even as she accepted his donations and used him to connect with Hollywood’s elite.

However, according to National Review, actress Lena Dunham and journalist Tina Brown both claimed otherwise. They say they warned Clinton about rape accusations against Weinstein as early as 2016.

Here is the video of the comments by Harvey Weinstein.