What do you get when you ask Mayor Michael Bloomberg a legitimate question at a news conference that includes the words “term limits?” You get an angry mayor looking you in the face and calling you a disgrace.

Michael Barbaro, from the Times’s City Room reports:

At a press conference in Queens on Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg was asked if an economic turnaround would undermine his initial reasoning for rewriting the city’s term limits law and seeking a third term, which was that a city in financial turmoil needed his steady hand and business background.

Mr. Bloomberg interrupted the question, from the New York Observer reporter Azi Paybarah, having deemed it unworthy of his time, and even called the reporter “a disgrace.”

Here’s how the exchange began:

Mr. Paybarah: If the economy is turning around, as you said, does that mean the rationale for changing term limits—-

Mr. Bloomberg: I don’t know why … if we have a serious question…

At this point, Mr. Paybarah tried to finish his question, but he was cut off by the mayor.

Mr. Bloomberg: The rationale for extending term limits is that the City Council passed it and the voters will have a chance on Nov. 3 to say what they want. I don’t think we have to keep coming back to it. … If you have a serious question about the economy I will be happy to answer it.

With that, the mayor concluded his press conference, looked directly at Mr. Paybarah and said, “You are a disgrace.”

Video of the exchange with Paybarah:

(Source: The New York Times)