New York Republican Carl Paladino, a real estate developer and former Buffalo school board member who lost a gubernatorial run in the state in 2010, just doesn’t know when to shut his mouth. For years, this antisemite has focused his ire on Black folks, insulting women, and even praising Hitler. Of course, he’s being endorsed by New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, CNN reports.
The latest discovery by CNN goes back to a 2016 radio interview he gave on local Buffalo radio station WBEN, where he defended his record on policies for Black students by saying that Black Americans “deserve better” than being “held captive in our inner cities.” And, had he stopped talking, that might have been the most progressive statement he’d ever made. But he didn’t.
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Paladino continued with a common right-wing trope: Racist Democrats are keeping Black folks down on purpose. “They shouldn’t be held hungry and dumb so as to provide a base for the Democratic Party, that’s what’s been going on. You can’t teach them differently because they’ve been so conditioned to think that way,” he said.
Paladino alleges CNN twisted his words.
“It is not surprising that CNN is once again taking my comments out of context from years ago. Democrats’ policies have failed Black voters and taken them for granted, which is why Republicans have a historic opportunity to win huge this November. … I am proud of the work I did for Buffalo Schools, turning around an underperforming district, and investing resources in predominately African American areas,” he said in a statement sent to CNN.
Were his words taken out of context when, as Media Matters reports, during a 2021 appearance on the r-House Radio Show, he proudly called Adolf Hitler—the German leader of the Nazis who orchestrated the murder of 6 million Jews and countless millions of others—“the kind of leader we need today”?
Paladino’s comments came after r-House host Peter Hunt asked him about how to get people “thinking about the possibility of change” in New York.
Paladino responded with:
“I was thinking the other day about somebody had mentioned on the radio Adolf Hitler and how he aroused the crowds. And he would get up there screaming these epithets, and these people were just—they were hypnotized by him. That's, I guess, I guess that's the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational,” Paladino said.
The Atlantic reported during his 2010 run for governor of New York, Paladino compared same-sex marriage to the evils of the Nazis. He later apologized. (I’m sensing a trend here.)
"I sincerely apologize for any comment that may have offended the Gay and Lesbian Community or their family members," Paladino wrote in an email to The Atlantic. "Any reference to branding an entire community based on a small representation of them is wrong."
In 2016, Paladino was forced to apologize for racist comments he made about then-President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.
At the time, he said he hoped President Obama would die of mad cow disease after having sex with a cow, and that he’d like the first lady to “return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”
Paladino initially denied the comments he’d made to ArtVoice.com, then later said he’d meant to send it to a friend, and then finally apologized. Again.
Using a now-deleted Twitter account in 2020 and 2021, Paladino went on a sexist and explicit tirade. Media Matters reports that in a now-deleted Facebook page, he spouted a dangerous conspiracy theory inferring that the shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, were “false flag” attacks designed to further gun control initiatives.
It’s been just over a month since 10 Black East Side Buffalo residents were gunned down in a grocery store by a self-proclaimed white supremacist with an AR-15, and not even a month since 19 kids and two teachers were murdered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
Sounds like a perfect candidate for the Republican party. I’m sure he’s on the shortlist for a Trump endorsement anytime now.
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