Andy calls Columbus a keeper

THE now-controversial Christopher Columbus statue at Columbus Circle should stay put, Gov. Cuomo said Monday.

“The Christopher Columbus statue is really about honoring Italian-Americans and the contribution of Italian-Americans,” Cuomo told reporters at the New York Caribbean Carnival Parade — arguing it’s not so much about the explorer himself.

“Nobody is saying that Christopher Columbus did not do bad acts to indigenous people. And I believe the indigenous people, by the way, should be celebrated,” Cuomo said. “But if you want to take that kind of retrospective lens, where do you stop? Thomas Jefferson, George Washington — you know, who is without sin?”

The Columbus statue (photo) is among the monuments that will be reviewed by a commission Mayor de Blasio is assembling to consider symbols of hate on city property.

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has suggested it should go. De Blasio has declined to give his personal view on the statue, saying he wants to let the commission do its work.

The group was announced in the aftermath of violence in Charlottesville, Va., sparked by white supremacists who were opposing the removal of Confederate monuments.

Cuomo said there’s no comparison between those monuments and Columbus. “Taking it to the point where you want to say we shouldn’t honor Italian-Americans . . . I think that goes too far,” he said.