New York City Mayor Eric Adams bestowed Diddy with a key to the city last September, but is now looking into the possibility of rescinding the prestigious honor after surveillance footage was leaked by CNN of Sean Combs attacking his then-girlfriend Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel in March of 2016.
Adams sat down with PIX11 for an interview on Monday (May 20) where he was asked for his thoughts about Diddy receiving a Key to the City after watching the disturbing video clip last week.
“I think all of us were deeply disturbed by watching that chilling video of the young lady being assaulted by him, and the committee and the team – we’ve never rescinded a key before, but we are now sitting down to see what the next steps forward are going to be,” he said.” “We are taking everything under analysis, and the team will come back to me with a final determination.”
The physical assault appears to mirror an abuse allegation made by Cassie Ventura in the sprawling lawsuit she made against Diddy last November before settling the matter less than 24 hours later. In the suit, she alleged that Diddy became extremely intoxicated and punched her, leaving Ventura with a black eye during an altercation at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles around March 2016.
“The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs,” said Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, in a statement to Billboard after the jarring footage was released. “Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”
Diddy then issued an apology for his actions, which he described as “inexcusable,” in a video posted to social media on Sunday (May 19).
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” Diddy said. “I was f-ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I’m disgusted now.”
