Carl Paladino, a Republican candidate for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, has called Black people “dumb and hungry,” claimed they are “conditioned” to only vote for Democrats, while insisting he’s not “a racist.” He also said a woman who had accused Donald Trump of sexual assault “probably enjoyed” it.
Paladino, recently endorsed by Elise Stefanik, the chairperson of the House GOP Caucus, is a right-wing New York real estate developer who lost a race for governor in 2010. He was elected twice to the Buffalo school board but removed after publicly disclosing confidential information.
In a 2016 radio interview, Paladino declared “that Black Americans were kept ‘dumb and hungry’ so they could be conditioned to only vote for the Democratic Party, saying, ‘You can’t teach them differently,'” according to a CNN KFile report.
Congresswoman Stefanik, the third most powerful House Republican, on June 3 praised Paladino as an “inspirational” leader, a “doer,” and “the kind of leader we need today.” That endorsement came just days before it was revealed Paladino in 2021 had called Adolf Hitler “inspirational,” and “the kind of leader we need today” (audio.)
Stefanik later doubled down on her endorsement despite Paladino’s praise for Hitler, a genocidal fascist responsible for the murders of approximately 17 million people.
In 2016 Paladino made remarks about Black people during his tenure as a Buffalo school board member who “was defending himself against allegations that previous comments he made were racist,” CNN noted.
“I don’t think of myself in any way as a racist,” Paldino said on local Buffalo radio station WBEN, saying he fought for policies to help Black children while on the Buffalo School Board.
In 2016, “Paladino had said he would like to see Michelle Obama ‘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 that he hoped Barack Obama would die of Mad Cow Disease after having sex with a cow.”
Also in 2016 Paladino “disparaged a woman who accused former President Donald Trump of sexual assault,” CNN adds. He tweeted: “get a life. You probably enjoyed the slap at the time,” as this screenshot from CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski shows: