Trump Adviser Who Called Michelle Obama A Gorilla Blames E-mail

Earlier this month, in an interview with alternative media outlet Artvoice, Carl Paladino (the co-chair of Donald Trump’s New York presidential campaign) called Michelle Obama a man who should be “let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she [can] live comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”

Then, he said he’d like to see President Obama “catch mad cow disease” from having sex with a bovine. The commander-in-chief, Paladino said, should be “buried in a cow pasture.”

Now some folks suggested that all of that sounds a bit racist, although I can’t imagine why they would think that. Paladino, in a statement, explained that his comments “had nothing to do with race.” His message to America: “Merry Christmas and tough luck if you don’t like my answer.”

Well, it’s apparently occurred to Carl that he needs to at least try and explain why he would have knowingly submitted a racist diatribe like the one described above for publication in a magazine. I mean even if you wanted to say what Carl said, you certainly wouldn’t say it in public let alone go on the record with it. Especially if you were on the Buffalo school board.

On Tuesday, Carl said the following about the incident:

I did not mean to send those answers to Artvoice. Not that it makes any difference because what I wrote was inappropriate under any circumstance. I filled out the survey to send to a couple friends and forwarded it to them not realizing that I didn’t hit ‘forward’ I hit ‘reply.’ All men make mistakes.

You’re right Carl, it doesn’t make any difference whether you meant to hit ‘reply’ or ‘forward.’ The question is why were you thinking those things in the first place? Further, the “mistake” wasn’t the ‘reply’/ ‘forward’ mix up; the mistake was being a deluded bigot.

And please do tell us who those “couple of friends” are that you thought might enjoy reading your ridiculous rant because we certainly want to make sure they don’t end up holding public office.

If we believe Paladino, then this has to be one of the worst “I didn’t mean to send that to you” e-mail gaffes of all time. Even so, it looks like Carl didn’t learn much from it. Or at least not according to The New York Times:

After his statement was published by WBEN, a Buffalo radio station, The New York Times contacted Mr. Paladino, who said he would send a reporter the statement. Instead, he forwarded what appeared to be part of a different statement. It picked up in the middle of a thought, and took to task the “pathetic heathens” it said had criticized him, including Mr. Cuomo and the president of the Buffalo school board, Barbara Seals Nevergold.

Mr. Paladino said that statement was a draft written by his brother-in-law, which he did not intend to send.