Former gubernatorial candidate and Donald Trump supporter Carl Paladino is challenging a media report on Wednesday that charged he made a racial slur during a radio interview on WAMC in Albany.

According to Paladino, the blog "Think Progress" claimed that the Buffalo area businessman used a racial slur when he referenced "getting the raccoons out of the basement" during the public radio interview.  Paladino was referencing Trumps landslide victory as a message to the Republican establishment that a 'cleaning of the house' is in the works.

In fact, Paladino said his remarks actually referenced an 80-year-old man's letter addressed to the Republican National Committee from earlier this year that used the terminology "raccoons in the basement" when explaining Donald Trump's political success.

You’ve been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately…You call the city and four different exterminators, but nobody could handle the job. There is this one guy however, who guarantees you he will get rid of them, so you hire him. You don’t care if the guy smells, you don’t care if the guy swears, you don’t care how many times he’s been married, you don’t care if he was friends with liberals, you don’t care if he has plumber’s crack…you simply want those raccoons gone! You want your problem fixed! He’s the guy. He’s the best. Period.


The Think Progress story summarized Paladino's interview with David Greene by calling it racially charged and targeting President Obama.

Paladino concluded the interview by explaining that "people who get on the Trump bus are people that are very, very frustrated with their government as it's been," before taking one last especially racially loaded shot at Obama.

"It doesn't matter what kind of person is the exterminator, they want the raccoons out of the basement," Paladino said as Greene promptly ended the segment. -Think Progress.

"Without calling me, he wrote and published  a hit piece on me illustrating an unforgivable lack of journalistic integrity," Paladino wrote in a release issued late Wednesday.  "I expect a retraction," he added.  Paladino's release included harsh criticism for the New York State  Congressional delegation and members of the New York State legislature.

Think Progress responded to Paladino's release:

Paladino called the ThinkProgress newsroom Wednesday afternoon to directly make the case that he didn’t mean for “raccoon” to be taken as a racial slur.

“Raccoons represent thievery, they don’t represent race,” Paladino said. “The rest of the world hasn’t interpreted it in the way you did.”

In fact, the use of “coon” and “raccoon” as a racial slur has a history going back to the minstrel shows that were popular in America in the decades before the Civil War. For a detailed history, read this Ferris State University article on “The Coon Caricature.”  -Think Progress

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According to Paladino, this was the letter sent to the RNC by the anonymous 80-year-old man:

RNC
P.O. Box 96994
Washington DC 20090-6994
Dear Representative,

From the time I was able to vote I voted Republican. I am 80 years old, and have a great deal of respect and influence with hundreds of senior ball players who also network with thousands of others around the country.

I received your questionnaire and request for money and strongly agree with every question, as I have since Obama was elected. Unfortunately the one question that was missing is “What have the Republicans done for the American people?” We gave you a majority in the House and Senate, yet you never listened to us. Now you want our money.

You should be more concerned about our votes, not our money. You are the establishment, which means all you want is to save your jobs and line your pockets… Well guess what? “It’s not going to happen” You shake in your boots when I tell you we’re giving our support to TRUMP and he hasn’t asked for a dime.

You might think we are fools because you feel Trump is on a self destruction course, but you need to look beyond Washington and listen to the masses. Nobody has achieved what he has, especially in the liberal state of New York.

You clearly don’t understand why the Trump movement is so strong, so I’d like to share with you an analogy to help explain the Trump phenomenon. By the way, it’s not just the Republicans who feel ignored and disrespected, there are plenty of Democrats and Independents who also feel let down by the Washington elite. You seem to have  forgotten about “We The People” and who hired you to represent us.

So here it is, the best analogy I could come up with. Here is the reason so many Americans have boarded the Trump Train, and why you’re pleas to come back to the party who deserted us, is falling on deaf ears:

You’ve been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately…You call the city and four different exterminators, but nobody could handle the job. There is this one guy however, who guarantees you he will get rid of them, so you hire him. You don’t care if the guy smells, you don’t care if the guy swears, you don’t care how many times he’s been married, you don’t care if he was friends with liberals, you don’t care if he has plumber’s crack…you simply want those raccoons gone! You want your problem fixed! He’s the guy. He’s the best. Period. Here’s why we want Trump: Yes he’s a bit of an ass, yes he’s an egomaniac, but we don’t care. The country is a mess because politicians have become too self-serving. The Republican Party is two-faced & gutless. Illegal aliens have been allowed to invade our nation. We want it all fixed! We don’t care that Trump is crude, we don’t care that he insults people, we don’t care that he had been friendly with Hillary, we don’t care that he has changed positions, we don’t care that he’s been married three times, we don’t care that he fights with Megan Kelly and Rosie O’Donnell, we don’t care that he doesn’t know the name of some Muslim terrorist. 

This country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegal aliens and bringing tens of thousands of Muslim refugees to America, while leaving Christians behind to be persecuted. We are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo and Hasid is part of a special group with special rights, to the point where we don’t even recognize the country we were born and raised in; “AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED” and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want. 

We’re sick of politicians. We’re sick of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. We just want this thing fixed. Trump may not be a saint, but he isn’t beholden to lobbyist money and he doesn’t have political correctness restraining him. All we know is that he has been very successful, he’s an excellent negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he’s also not a politician. He’s definitely not a cowardly politician. When he says he’ll fix it, we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong or looked at and called a liar.

Oh yeah…I forgot…we don’t care if the guy has bad hair either. 

We just want those raccoons gone. 

Out of your house. 

NOW!

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