Trump New York co-chair won't resign despite racist remarks about Obamas

The Trump presidential campaign New York co-chair who made inflammatory and racist statements about US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, says he will not resign from the Buffalo school board, which on Thursday voted to remove him.

Millionaire developer Carl Paladino last week told a Buffalo alternative newspaper he wanted to see the president dead of mad cow disease and the first lady living with a gorilla in Zimbabwe.

Having first said the comments had “nothing to do with race”, he also said they were examples of “old-style humour” intended “to wake people up … to get people’s attention”.

The newspaper, Artvoice, included Paladino, 70, among a number of people asked what they wanted to see happen in 2017. 

“[Barack] Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Her[e]ford,” he said.

“He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to [senior Obama adviser] Valerie Jarret[t], who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady [sic] cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.”

About Michelle Obama, he said: “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 a statement, Paladino said he had spoken “about two progressive elitist ingrates who have hated their country so badly and destroyed its fabric in so many respects in eight years”.

He subsequently said his words were not meant for publication but were nevertheless “inappropriate”.

At a special meeting on Thursday, the Buffalo school board voted 6-2 for a resolution asking the state education commissioner to remove Paladino, the ninth member, if he did not resign within 24 hours. More than 70% of the district is non-white, according to the resolution.

According to the Guardian newspaper, some board members accused Paladino of acting like a bully and making remarks they would not tolerate from students. 

“This level of hatred for African Americans cannot and should not set policy for the education of African American children,” board member Paulette Woods said.

Paladino, who did not attend, has said he will not resign.

“I’m the agent of change. I’m the guy that exposed the underbelly of their corrupt and dysfunctional school system, and they want me gone from the scene,” he told a local radio station on Wednesday.

A Trump spokesperson said the comments were “absolutely reprehensible, and they serve no place in our public discourse”.