Tea Party darling Carl Paladino compares president Obama to ‘raccoon in the basement'
The honorary co-chair of Mr Trump's campaign in New York used a word that has a long history of racist affiliations
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Shortly after Carl Paladino had stood beside Donald Trump on the stage at his New York victory rally, the Tea Party favourite hopped on to a radio interview and made racist remarks towards president Obama.
Speaking to NPR radio about Mr Trump’s success in New York and projecting further successes in Northeast state primaries, the fellow real estate developer turned politician said Mr Obama was like “a raccoon in the basement”.
The former New York Republican candidate for governor said: “People who get on the Trump bus are people that are very, very frustrated with their government as it's been.”
“It doesn't matter what kind of person is the exterminator, they want the raccoons out of the basement."
Mr Paladino stood behind Mr Trump and beside his youngest daughter Tiffany just hours before, while Mr Trump thanked New Yorkers for handing him over 60 per cent of the vote.
Mr Paladino's racist comments came after he criticized the “Washington elite monsters” in government and how Americans have had to “tolerate the biases” Mr Obama for two terms, “a man who in every respect looks like he despises America as the leader of America.”
"And it’s disgusting. He’s so into himself, he can’t help himself,” Mr Paladino continued. “How did a guy like this rise to that point of being president of the wonder of history and the world?”
The tea party darling said Mr Trump, like anybody, had “flaws” but that the presidential candidate “speaks directly to people and engages people”.
He then managed to take a direct shot at Mr Obama as the host David Greene wrapped up the interview.
Mr Paladino previously proposed to transform New York prisons into accommodation for welfare recipients, where they could work for the state and take lessons in “personal hygiene”.
ThinkProgress reported that he also received $3 million in state tax breaks for the economy of Buffalo, yet he pocketed the tax refunds. He also opposed the Islamic community center in the area surrounding the fallen Twin Towers in Manhattan, describing the center as “a monument to those who attacked our city”.
In 2010 when he was running for governor, WNYmedia.net revealed that Mr Paladino “regularly forwarded pornography and racially degrading material to friends on the Internet”.
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