Mayor Bloomberg defended “60 Minutes” newsman Mike Wallace yesterday – a day after inspectors with the Taxi and Limousine Commission tangled with the 86-year-old television correspondent.

“I want to find out more,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters at Fort Hamilton yesterday, adding that he knew Mr. Wallace casually and didn’t know him to be particularly aggressive. “Why a man in his 80s was so threatening…why he’d have to be handcuffed, I don’t know. We will be looking into it.”

The dispute began at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday as Mr. Wallace was leaving a Manhattan restaurant on the Upper East Side and began arguing with city inspectors over where his driver was parked. The Taxi and Limousine Commission officers ended up handcuffing Mr. Wallace and driving him to the police station.

The TLC said Mr. Wallace became “overly assertive and disrespectful” and interfered with the inspectors as they tried to interview his driver, who was double-parked.

The commission said Mr. Wallace lunged at the inspectors and that’s when he was handcuffed, taken to the police station, and issued a summons for disorderly conduct.

The manager of the restaurant, Luigi Militello, told New York 1 the inspectors had “manhandled” Mr. Wallace outside the restaurant. “He just questioned what was going on, at which point he was instructed to go in the car and not give any lip,” the restaurant manager said. “Mr.Wallace said he wasn’t giving any lip.”

CBS declined to comment any further on the incident yesterday.

Mr. Wallace spoke to Don Imus on MSNBC yesterday and said he had ordered a car service and was going to get some meatloaf and go home.

“All of a sudden some traffic and limousine cops intervened,” he said. “All I was trying to do was protect my meatloaf.”