The New York co-chair for Donald Trump’s campaign issued an apology on Tuesday for a racist screed against Barack and Michelle Obama by denying that he is racist and saying he views “Barak [sic] Obama as a traitor to American values.”
New York real estate developer and longtime Trump friend Carl Paladino also vowed to remain on the Buffalo School Board after nearly a week of vocal calls for his ouster. Last week, it was revealed he had written that his wish for 2017 was for President Obama to die of mad cow disease “after being caught having relations with a [cow],” for 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,” and for Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to be decapitated by “a Jihady cell mate” while serving time in prison. Paladino had written those answers in response to a questionnaire from a local publication Artvoice, responses which he said in Tuesday’s apology letter he never meant to be published.
“I never intended to hurt the minority community who I spent years trying to help out of the cycle of poverty in our inner cities,” Paladino wrote in the open letter to Artvoice. “To them I apologize.”
Paladino also said that he had meant to forward these answers to friends and not hit reply to the survey, noting “not that it makes any difference because what I wrote was inappropriate under any circumstance.”
Even as he apologized, though, he went onto eviscerate the Obamas and critics who have called for him to step down from his school board position.
“Obama has not led America to a better place by disregarding the rule of law and standing with his elitist brethren as above the law nor has his wife Michele [sic] Obama who told our children and the world after the election that now ‘there is no hope for America,’” he wrote, calling the President a traitor to American values. More from the totally contrite-sounding apology:
I filled out the survey to send to a couple friends and forwarded it to them not realizing that I didn’t hit “forward” I hit “reply.” All men make mistakes.
What is horrible is explaining to my 17 year old daughter how her hero could be so stupid.
What is horrible is watching my family and friends react to the rabid hordes of attacking parasites we now call activist progressives.
It’s been a sick, combative year for America. We changed the direction of our country and beat back the demons for a few decades. I am proud to have been a part of the making of history.
As for the vanquished progressive haters out there spewing their venom at anything that is a reminder of their humiliating defeat, irrelevance is tough to chew on.
For the mean spirited disoriented press trying to find grounding and recover legitimacy on my back, pray that you still have a job next year because you have lost all credibility with the people.
Previously, Paladino had said his comments about the nation’s first black president and First Lady, likening them to zoo and farm animals, had “nothing to do with race.”
They sparked widespread condemnation, however, with even his own son having called them “disrespectful and absolutely unnecessary” in a post attempting to distance the family business from the company’s founder and still chairman.
“No, I’m not leaving the school board, not when it’s time to help implement the real choice elements of Trump’s plan for education reform,” Paladino wrote in Tuesday’s letter. “I’ve spent years dedicated to the mission to defeat the thought that the liberal progressive elitist establishment can continue to hold our minority children captive in the cycle of poverty simply to provide their voting base. I don’t intend to yield to the fanatics among my adversaries. I certainly am not a racist.”
On Monday, Buffalo News reported that three online petitions calling for his ouster had reached more than 20,000 signatures while protests were planned if Paladino remained on the school board.
On Tuesday, New York Upstate reported that New York State Commissioner of Education MaryEllen Elia had the authority to remove Paladino from his position.
