The former co-chairman of Donald Trump’s New York campaign on Tuesday apologized for his recent inflammatory remarks about the Obama family, saying: “I could not have made a worse choice in the words I used to express my feelings.”
“I never intended to hurt the minority community who I spent years trying to help out of the cycle of poverty in our inner cities. To them I apologize,” Carl Paladino said in a statement.
When recently asked by a New York arts publication what his 2017 wish was, Paladino said he hoped President Obama would “catch mad cow disease” and die. He also added that he hoped first lady Michelle Obama would “return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortable in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”
However, in his apology, he continued to attack Obama, calling him “a traitor to American values.”
“We don’t stand down and leave soldiers to die on a battlefield when we can send help,” Paladino said. “We don’t lie to the American people and the parents of our fallen to get re-elected. Obama has not led America to a better place by disregarding the rule of law and standing with his elitist brethren as above the law nor has his wife Michelle Obama… Your survey questions provided me with the spark to vent and write deprecating humor about a bad president for whom the mainstream media continues to seek an undeserved legacy.”
Despite the backlash for his comments, Paladino maintained that he is “certainly not a racist” and will not give up his Buffalo School Board seat.
