Washington: Carl Paladino, a western New York builder, one-time Republican candidate for governor of New York and political ally of President-elect Donald J. Trump, caused huge outrage on Friday after making racially offensive comments about President Obama and the first lady, who Paladino said should be “let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe.”
Paladino’s comments were published in Artvoice, a weekly Buffalo newspaper. They were made in response to an open-ended feature in which local figures were asked about their hopes for 2017.
“Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford,” said Paladino, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010, making an apparent reference to the Hereford cattle breed. He said he hoped the disease killed the president.
In response to the question what he most wanted to see “go away” in the new year, Paladino ? who has a reputation in New York political and business circles for speaking in an unfiltered manner a lot like Trump ? he said, “Michelle Obama.”
“I’d like her 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 said.
Very quickly condemnation of the remarks started doing rounds on social media. The local county executive called for Paladino to immediately resign his post on the Buffalo school board.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called the comments “racist, ugly and reprehensible.” He said in a statement that Paladino had a “long history” of making similar comments and that he had “embarrassed the good people of the state with his latest hate-filled rage.”
Trump did not personally defend Paladino, who served as a New York co-chairman of the president-elect’s campaign and calls himself a personal friend of Trump’s. “Carl’s comments are absolutely reprehensible, and they serve no place in our public discourse,” Jessica Ditto, a spokeswoman for Trump, said.