STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WXYZ) — The video is going viral on social media. It shows Sterling Heights' First Lady Christina Taylor being pulled back by her husband Mayor Michael Taylor during a confrontation with a frequent critic and Sterling Heights resident Jazmine Early.
This happened after a mayoral candidates forum last Thursday.
Jazmine Taylor tells 7 Action News about Mayor Taylor, “His nose was growing bigger than Pinocchio.”
Mayor Taylor would not talk on camera, but told us on the phone, “find something better. This is such bull ----!”
Taylor is being challenged for Mayor by Kenneth Nelson a former Councilman and business owner. The election is in 3 weeks. Mayor is a part-time job in Sterling Heights.
Early says the mayor told her, before the video started, she should move out and he’d pay for it.
In the video, you can hear Early say, “Are you still offering for me to move and pay my moving expenses? No, you are not Christians. If you were Christians, you would not treat people the way you have treated me.”
Early tells us about the in-your-face politics, “I was not expecting that. They should be professional. He’s the mayor and we, the residents, need to can and should make him accountable.”
We asked Mayor Taylor on the phone why he stepped in.
He says, “Because it is a waste of time to argue with Jazmine Early. That’s what she wants. She’s a troll, okay Jim?”
He also says, “She accused me of being a liar. She accuses me and my wife of not being Christian. She accuses me and my wife of being evil. She stalks my family.”
Early has run for public office herself. She says three times for council, two times for State Rep. And she has frequent clashes with the Mayor on social media. She says he used the F word with her in 2014 and 15.
Mayor Taylor is active on social media and criticized channel 7 online as he was being shown in his job as an attorney in a controversial case of a family guardianship for a loved one. “Do whatever you want, Jim. Your station is dead to me.”
Early says for her part, “I apologize for responding to her in the way she treated me. I should have done it better as a Christian.”
Early says she would have gone to the police if the confrontation became physical.
