On Question of Terror Trials, Carl Paladino Drops An F-Bomb
New York Republican continues impulsive, colorful comments.
Oct. 12, 2010— -- No stranger to bold, brash and sometimes offensive comments, Tea Party candidate Carl Paladino was caught on tape using a four-letter word to describe an Obama administration decision on where to try terror suspects.
Still facing a firestorm over recent comments some interpreted as anti-gay, Paladino, the New York Republican gubernatorial candidate, finds himself again having to defend or apologize for his famously impulsive and outlandish comments.
Asked in March for his reaction to a since-shelved plan by Attorney General Eric Holder to hold trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, like 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, in downtown Manhattan, Paladino gruffly replied: "F**k him. F**k him."
The video, though seven-months old, was recently posted on YouTube and the National Journal website.
Calls and e-mail to Paladino's office for comment were not immediately returned.
This latest flap comes in the wake of a seris of controversial comments, gaffes and dustups.
Last month Paladino scuffled with Fredric Dicke of the New York Post, who asked the candidate to prove his accusation that Democratic challenger Andrew Cuomo cheated on his ex-wife while the couple were still married.
"What evidence do you have for something most people would consider a smear?" Dicker asked.
Rather than respond to the question, Paladino accused Dicker of sending a "goon" to photograph his young daughter, who was born to a mistress and kept secret from his wife for a decade.
"You send another goon to my daughter's house and I'll take you out, buddy!" Paladino told Dicker.
Pushed again for proof of the accusation against Cuomo, Paladino told the Post, "At the appropriate time you will hear it."
On Wednesday, Paladino accused Cuomo of cheating on then wife Kerry Kennedy and challenged the media to find dirt on the Democrat instead of him.
"Has anybody asked Andrew Cuomo about his paramours?" Paladino asked Politico.com in an interview.
Cuomo has never previously been publicly accused of infidelity.
"We believe this conduct puts Carl Paladino's daughter in harm's way, susceptible to kidnapping or sexual predators. This behavior by The New York Post and their senior political editor Fred Dicker is unacceptable. Endangering the safety of a 10-year-old child is repugnant," read a Paladino statement.
