Gov, GOP big spar over fight

Gov. Cuomo blamed New York Republicans for violent clashes between members of the bigoted Proud Boys group and leftist protesters, saying the party “knew what was going to happen” when it invited the Proud Boys’ founder to its Upper East Side headquarters.

“It was either one of the dumbest acts or one of the most malicious and incendiary political acts I’ve ever seen,” the governor said Sunday in a conference call to reporters.

“You knew who the Proud Boys were. What did they think they were doing if not furthering the President’s political tactic of polarization?”

State GOP chair Edward Cox responded Sunday by calling Cuomo a “political coward” and complained that police are not doing enough to investigate vandalism at the party’s Manhattan headquarters discovered Friday morning, hours before Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes spoke there.

“It has been nearly four days since police were called to The Metropolitan Republican Club on East 83rd St. after it was viciously vandalized in the dead of night by left-wing radicals,” Cox complained.

Cox urged a probe of the vandalism, called the street fighting investigated by police was “a scuffle,” and said of Cuomo that “a real leader would call for calm.”

Three protesters were arrested Friday night after several fistfights broke out near the club.

Caleb Perkins, 35, Finbarr Slonim, 20, and Kai Russo, 20, were all charged with assault and harassment after they allegedly beat up a 30-year-old New Jersey man

All three were released without bail Saturday.