Billionaire issues apology for Klan Facebook post
ALBANY, N.Y. — A billionaire hedge fund manager has apologized for an online post saying that a black state senator has “done more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood” because of her support for teachers unions.
Daniel Loeb issued a statement saying he regrets the language he used in the Facebook post about Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-cousins. The post, an apparent reference to the white headgear of the Ku Klux Klan,wasdeletedlate Thursday.
Loeb, the CEO of the investment firm Third Point, is a top donor to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and many other politicians. He is a leading supporter of charter schools.
Stewart-cousins’ spokesman Mike Murphy said there was “no place in our discourse, political or otherwise, for these dangerous words.”
Loeb’s Facebook post was in response to a story in The New
York Times earlier this week on the ongoing tension among Cuomo, mainline Democrats and a Democratic Senate faction led by Sen. Jeff Klein, who broke ranks with the party to empower Republicans, who now control the Senate.
While Loeb deleted his remarks, the Times reported the text and the AP obtained a screenshot of the post.
“Thank God for Jeff Klein and those who stand for educational choice and support Charter (sic) funding that leads to economic mobility and opportunity for poor knack kids,” the post read.
“Meanwhile hypocrites like Stewart-cousins who pay fealty to powerful union thugs and bosses do more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood.”