In an argument with a reporter, recorded on videotape, the candidate for governor said, “You send another goon to my daughter’s house and I’ll take you out, buddy.”
You can watch the video here.
There’s a NY Times story about it here.
Personally I can’t interpret it any other way than as a threat of serious violence.
And I swear Luca Brasi was there. 
I meant for the thread title to say “Paladino’s statement…”
And then he makes it worse when, after the reporter asks ‘How are you going to take me out’, Paladino says ‘Watch’. While I don’t believe he meant it as a death threat, it was not a very wise thing to say. Cuomo’s campaign committee could very well start running spots along the line of ‘Just what did he mean when he said this to a reporter?’ And then the spot would end ‘Do we REALLY want a person who threatened a reporter to represent us?’ Paladino needs to do damage control quickly before Cuomo has a chance to make hay out of this incident.
That ad would only work if the public held reporters in universal esteem.
Since they don’t, that ad wouldn’t work at all. More than half the public would agree with Paladino, even if they disliked everything else he said.
The last thing Cuomo wants to do is put it in an ad right now. As it is it will be on the news and pundits will be talking about it ad nauseam. He should just let them give him free advertising for now.
Point well taken…just a thought that I had when I saw the report.
Does anyone know if they’re going to debate?
I would think it would be pretty easy to poke a bit at Paladino and get some kind of outrage response. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who can hold his temper.
Fixed it.
I’ll cut the guy a break and say he was just idly threatening to hurt the reporter, not kill him. But people usually don’t like to see their public servants making threats. It doesn’t matter that reporters aren’t that popular. The problem here is not that Cuomo is going to run an ad about this (he won’t), it’s that people are already starting to see Paladino as a psycho. That’s what happens when it comes out that you’ve been emailing racist jokes and horse porn to your friends. So adding this on top of that is only going to make it harder for him to be taken seriously, and he’s already well behind in the polls.
I am still just blown away that Paladino got the nomination. WTF?
Good point. How big a loser must the other Republican have been? Or is this another Christine O’Donnell case?
Cuomo is leading Paladino consistently and by comfortable margins in the polls, if that’s any consolation.
Lazio is kind of a loser, yes. But Paladino is a Tea Party guy and had stronger support from the more conservative parts of the state- although I see he failed to get the nomination from the Conservative Party. That’s usually a lock for major Republican candidates.
No, the public would not approve of death threats to a reporter. I know a lot of right wingers have been brainwashed by the right wing media into thinking they’re supposed to fear and hate the legit news media, but that does not translate to a majority of voters approving of murder.
Thank you. It is.
I read once that Harry Truman, when president, sent a scathing letter to a reporter who had published something about his daughter, but I don’t recall the details. I don’t think it included a death threat.
I’m a little surprised to hear you say that about the New York Post. 
It sounds like Paladino was angry about press coverage of his youngest daughter, age 10, who was born after an affair with an employee. I never heard about that at all, but it looks like the Daily News broke the story in April. At the time at least, Paladino said the girl would be with him and his other children on the campaign trail. I don’t know if that actually happened but it would be a bit ridiculous to say the press is intruding on their private lives when he’s appearing with her in public. On the other hand if the Post has been sending photographers to her house, that’s too much. We’re talking about a 10-year-old and she is not running for office.
“Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!”
Not a death threat, certainly, but not very nice. And let’s face it, Truman’s threat was as empty as Paladino’s.
I wouldn’t be so sure that Truman’s threat was empty.
I assume if you describe it as "an empty threat’, it is irrelevant? Does it not reveal character? Does it not tell you a lot about how he responds to pressure?
I think the voters should take Paladino out.
It’s pretty clear if you hear the tape that the future Governor meant that he was going to take him out to dinner.
:eek: Now that’s precocious!