At a campaign rally this past weekend, Andrew Cuomo sat on stage while his Democrat colleague, Public Advocate Letitia James, went on a racially charged rant against his opponent. James compared Republican Rob Astorino to segregationist Bull Connor, most famous for using fire hoses and attack dogs to enforce racial segregation during the civil rights era.
Given an opportunity to denounce James’ comments, Cuomo was left stuttering “for several seconds” before finally deferring to her on the comment.
James couldn’t hide her downright hatred toward Astorino, even refusing to say his name correctly.
Via the Observer:
Public Advocate Letitia James today compared Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino to Bull Connor, the segregationist public safety commissioner from Birmingham who loosed attack dogs and turned firehoses on black civil rights demonstrators in the early 1960s.
Speaking at a Women’s Equality Party rally with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and host of African-American elected officials from central Brooklyn, Ms. James–who appeared in an advertisement for the rival Working Families Party earlier this week–cast the Westchester County executive, whom she repeatedly incorrectly referred to as “Rick Astorino,” as an ultra-conservative bigot.
“We have a far-right Republican, someone who reminds me of Bull Connor in the 1960s. He’s anti-choice, anti-LGBT, anti-women’s equality, anti-progress,” said Ms. James, urging the largely black crowd to boo. “His name is Rick Astorino, and he is more aligned with the Tea Party than our values, the values that we share.”
As mentioned, the Observer asked Cuomo “if he concurred with Ms. James’ comparison,” only to receive several seconds of stuttering and a complete deflection on the question.
Astorino is so anti-black that he has nominated Chris Moss – an African-American – as his running mate for Lieutenant Governor, and was endorsed by the New Rochelle President of the NAACP who referred to “his clear compassion for people in need.”
James lack of knowledge regarding Astorino’s first name wasn’t the most glaring mistake during her comments.
She forgot that Bull Connor was a Democrat. The party of racist bigotry has always been the Democrat party.