The Buffalo school board voted by a measure of 6 to 2 on Thursday to demand that member Carl Paladino, who served as the co-chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign in New York, resign within 24 hours due to his incredibly racist remarks about the Obamas in an email he inadvertently sent to the Buffalo publication Artvoice. If he does not resign today, the school board will petition New York Education Commissioner MaryEllen to mandate his removal.
Paladino's racist statements were sent in response to a survey sent out by Artvoice that asked readers about their wishes for 2017. He wrote that he hoped President Obama would die of mad cow disease, and in response to a question about who he would like to see go away next year, he wrote of his wish to see Michelle Obama relegated to live with gorillas in a cave in Africa. Read his abhorrent statements below.
"Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her."
"I'd like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla."
In his "apology statement," Paladino admitted that he had meant to forward the email in question to his friends instead of replying back to Artvoice. He said he "never intended to hurt the minority community," and he explained that his intent with his email was "to say something as sarcastic and hurtful as possible about the people who are totally responsible for the hurt and suffering of so many others."
This is not the first time Paladino has come under fire for racist emails. When he was the Republican nominee for Governor of New York in 2010, it was discovered that he had forwarded a series of racist meme-like emails, including one that showed a picture of an airplane landing behind a group of black men with the caption, “Holy shit. run n—s, run!”, reports Salon.
Paladino ended his apology statement by avowing his continued aim to implement Trump's plan for education reform and by declaring, "I certainly am not a racist."