#perverts | #WhatTheyVotedFor
This is the basic math: (Sexual Behavior) + (Gender) + (Death) = Conservative Rant.
In the interview with arts publication Artvoice, the real estate developer was asked what he would most like to happen in the New Year.
He responded: “Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to [senior White House adviser] Valerie Jarrett, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her being a nice person and decapitated her.”
He also said he’d like to see first lady Michelle Obama “return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortable in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”
(Rupert)
This is the important question: Why?
The simple version, from The Hill is useful for being a reasonably straightforward summary of the moment. Evelyn Rupert closes her report noting, “Paladino verified his comments to The Buffalo News, saying he is not ‘politically correct'”.
Sam Levine of the Huffington Post ran with the astounding but reasonably accurate headline, “Trump’s New York Co-Chair Says Michelle Obama Is A Man Who Should Live In Africa With Gorillas”. And, really―
The Huffington Post contacted Paladino to verify the comments, but he declined to respond.
“IO [sic] don’t talk to anyone from Huffington Post. Sorry,” he wrote. He did, however, then release a statement to reporters through a representative saying that his comments had nothing to do with race.
“It has nothing to do with race. That’s the typical stance of the press when they can’t otherwise defend the acts of the person being attacked. It’s about 2 progressive elitist ingrates who have hated their country so badly and destroyed its fabric in so many respects in 8 years,” the statement said.
―it’s not funny. Yeah, it’s Carl Paladino. And, you know, who else could possibly botch up a simple ArtVoice gimmick piece quite like Carl Paladino?
And while the transition team for president elect Donald Trump appropriately denounced the New York real estate developer and gubernatorial failure’s outburst as “reprehensible”, and rather quite reasonably asserted such remarks “serve no place in our public discourse”, we should probably keep that in mind over the long run, counting up this and similar gaffes of diverse magnitudes, because, quite frankly, the role of bigotry and bullying in Donald Trump’s electoral appeal is a vital question, and if we’re not surprised that it is Carl Paladino, neither should we allow ourselves any pretense of surprise that the reckless tough guy plays palooka from the corner of his fellow real estate developer. This is, after all, #WhatTheyVotedFor.
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Image note: New York real estate developer, failed gubernatorial candidate, and former state Trump campaign co-chairman Carl Paladino. (Photo: Unknown)
Levine, Sam. “Trump’s New York Co-Chair Says Michelle Obama Is A Man Who Should Live In Africa With Gorillas”. The Huffington Post. 23 December 2016.
Moses, Jamie. “What Do We Want For 2017? We have a Lot of Different Opinions”. ArtVoice. 23 December 2016.
Rupert, Evelyn. “Trump team: NY co-chair’s remarks about Obamas ‘reprehensible'”. The Hill. 23 December 2016.
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