Cuomo Slams Paladino Remarks on Gays

New York attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo slammed his Republican rival, Carl Paladino, for his "reckless" and "divisive" comments against gay people.

According to the New York Daily News, speaking at the Columbus Day Parade in Midtown Manhattan, Cuomo denounced the remarks, which he found particularly ill-considered given recent news of antigay attacks, including a brutal gang assault in the Bronx.

"The comments that Mr. Paladino made were reckless," said Cuomo, according to the Daily News. "I think they were divisive. They were reckless in light of all the recent violence that we've had. They were divisive. They were the worst cynical politics trying to pit people against one another, trying to pit groups against one another. I also think that New Yorkers have seen this before. They've seen people try to play us off against each other, and it doesn't work. It is repugnant to the concept of what New York is."

During a meeting Sunday with Orthodox Jewish leaders in Brooklyn, Paladino said that children should not be "brainwashed" into thinking that homosexuality was acceptable, and he attacked Cuomo for marching in the gay pride parade. Paladino continued to defend the remarks Monday on the basis of his Catholic faith, a strategy that Cuomo called "cynical," according to the Daily News.

"I think this too was a cynical, political ploy," said Cuomo. "We've seen it before. You go to one group, one conservative group, and you tell them what they want to hear. New Yorkers have seen it before. It's been rejected in the past. It will be rejected once again. You're not going to pull us apart. That's what we're all about."

The volatile Paladino, a Tea Party favorite who shocked the political establishment by winning the GOP gubernatorial nomination last month, trails Cuomo in the polls. A wealthy Buffalo businessman, in the past month he has stoked controversy with racist e-mails and anti-Semitic comments.