Cuomo Campaign Throws Out 'Racist' Charge Against Paladino

The New York gubernatorial race got just a little bit nastier Monday, as Andrew Cuomo's campaign suggested Republican opponent Carl Paladino is "racist" for remarks he made weeks ago about inner-city residents.

Cuomo's campaign tore into Paladino following a New York Post article that said his campaign manager exaggerated when he claimed the GOP nominee was "responsible for training 250 men" at Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1971. The Post reported that Paladino was actually enrolled in an academic class that dealt with training but did not train anybody himself -- though he apparently trained troops later on while serving in the Army Reserve.

Cuomo, New York's attorney general, used the story to revive comments Paladino made in defense of his proposal to turn prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients. He told the AP in August that his experience training inner-city troops taught him they need to be shown how to do "basic things" like physical fitness and "taking care of themselves." He later told The New York Times this includes teaching troops to brush their teeth twice a day.

"With claims about his military record now exposed as false, Mr. Paladino must explain what inspired him to tell The New York Times that his military experience showed him that people from low-income backgrounds needed to be taught how to 'clean themselves daily and brush their teeth twice a day,'" the campaign said. (The part in quotations was not actually a quote from Paladino, but a paraphrased excerpt in The New York Times.)

"It was bad enough when Mr. Paladino's explanation for his comments was that they were borne of his experience training troops from low-income backgrounds. Now that those claims have been exposed as a lie, the logical conclusion is that he's just ignorant and unqualified to lead a state with New York's diversity," the campaign said. "Should we be on the lookout for a new video from the Paladino campaign this morning claiming that he isn't a racist?"

Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo explained to the Post that he merely "misspoke" when he originally said Paladino trained troops at Fort Bliss.