Trump Campaign Co-Chair Carl Paladino “Apologizes” for His Gutter Racism (But Not Really)
Carl Paladino, a member of the Buffalo school board and the co-chair of Donald Trump’s New York campaign, got another 15 minutes of fame last week when he answered a survey from Buffalo alternative weekly Artvoice with some of the most repellent racist comments about President Obama and his wife Michelle you’ll ever see without visiting a neo-Nazi website.
After all the coverage and calls for him to resign from the school board (and probably a dressing down from Trump’s people if not Trump himself, because hey, it’s embarrassing when one of their guys lets his inner racist show in public), Paladino has now “apologized,” except of course it’s not a real apology because that’s how guys like this roll.
Here’s this mess of rancid bullshit, if you care to read it: Carl Paladino apologizes to ‘minority community’ for Obama remarks; explains motivation. It’s nearly as disgusting as the comments that made the pseudo-apology necessary.
Three points stand out:
- He says he only meant to email his survey responses to friends, privately, as if this somehow makes the vile comments less vile.
- He says he's not going to resign from the school board, because of course he isn't.
- He says he's not a racist.
Debased racists like Paladino always deny their racism; that’s nothing new. It’s almost as if they dimly realize they’re disgusting freaks who should be ashamed of themselves.
But in Paladino’s case, he’s denying something that’s been a matter of public record for a long, long time. Here’s a look back at Paladino’s history; I don’t recommend reading this if you’ve just eaten.
As I wrote when this latest scandal broke, it’s an utter disgrace that someone this hateful even has a career in politics at all, let alone being a member of a school board that oversees the education of children. But unfortunately it isn’t surprising at all that this vile reactionary cretin is connected to the Trump Horror.