The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Trump ally wishes Obama dead, Michelle ‘in a cave’
CARL PALADINO, a western New York builder, one-time Republican candidate for governor of New York and political ally of President-elect Donald Trump, came under fire Friday for ‘racially charged’ comments about President Barack Obama and the first lady, whom Paladino said should be “let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe”.
Paladino’s comments, published in a local newspaper, came in response to an openended 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 breed of beef cattle originating in Britain. He said he hoped the disease killed the president.
Asked 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 reminiscent of Trump’s — answered, “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,” he said.
Condemnation of the remarks was swift on social media and among elected officials around the state. The local county executive called for Paladino to immediately resign his post on the Buffalo school board.
Paladino, moving just as swiftly to defend himself, described the comments about the Obama as “old-style humour”.