Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

GOP Candidate Sparks Outrage After Praising Hitler As 'The Kind Of Leader We Need Today'

GOP Candidate Sparks Outrage After Praising Hitler As 'The Kind Of Leader We Need Today'
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images; Bettman/Getty Images

Carl Paladino—a Republican running for the GOP nomination to replace retiring New York Republican Representative Chris Jacobs—sparked outrage after he praised German Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler as "the kind of leader we need today."

Paladino said Hitler—who orchestrated the systematic genocide of more than 11 million people including over six million Jews and millions of Romani, disabled, LGBTQ+ and critics of the Nazi regime—had an innate ability to rouse "the crowds."


House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, also of New York, endorsed Paladino's candidacy.

Paladino made his remarks in a February 2021 interview on The r-House Radio Show, which is hosted by real estate company executive Peter Hunt on a local Buffalo, New York radio station.

His words came under scrutiny after they were reported on by the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America (MMA).

You can hear his remarks in the video below.

Asked by Hunt about how to "get people thinking about the possibility of change here in New York state and what that might mean for our, for everyone here," Paladino responded with the following:

“I was thinking the other day about—somebody had mentioned on the radio Adolf Hitler and how he aroused the crowds.
“And he would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just—they were hypnotized by him."
"That’s, I guess, I guess that’s the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational.”

After his statements came under scrutiny, Paladino released a statement denying he supported Hitler or his motives and accused the media of mischaracterizing his own words:

“Any implication that I support Hitler or any of the sick and disgusting actions of the Nazi regime is a new low for the media."
"The context of my statement was in regards to something I heard on the radio from someone else and was repeating, [and] I understand that invoking Hitler in any context is a serious mistake and rightfully upsets people."
"I strongly condemn the murderous atrocities committed against the Jewish people by Hitler and the Nazis.”

But these words rang hollow with his critics, who condemned him for supporting perhaps history's most notorious fascist.


More conservatives have invoked Hitler's name in recent months.

Most recently, Tennessee state Republican Senator Frank Niceley faced heavy criticism after he used Hitler as a model of inspiration and hope for unhoused people.

Niceley offered his fellow lawmakers a "history lesson" while speaking in defense of a bill to cut down on homeless encampments that would make it a Class “C” Misdemeanor to solicit or camp along highways and exit ramps as well as criminalize camping on public and state property.

He noted Hitler had chosen to hone his oratory and people skills while living on the streets of Vienna in 1910 and suggested that Hitler's story offers a powerful example of overcoming homelessness and living "a productive life."

In addition to praising Hitler's style, Paladino also shared a Facebook post suggesting the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas were false flags orchestrated by Democrats to "revoke the 2nd amendment and take away guns."

In 2016, Paladino tweeted then-New York Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a Black woman, should be "lynched."

In the same year he stated he'd like to see President Barack Obama die of mad cow disease from sex with British cattle. Paladino also said he wanted Michelle Obama to "return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla."

His comments cost Paladino his position with the Buffalo School Board.

All of these incidents occurred before Republican Representative Elise Stefanik praised him on June 3, 2022, tweeting her friend Carl is a "conservative outsider who will be a tireless fighter for the people of New York in our fight to put America First to save the country."

More from Trending

Lorne Michaels
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images

Lorne Michaels Just Explained The Thinking Behind His Big 'Saturday Night Live' Cast Shakeup

Saturday Night Live turned 50 last year and a lot of former cast members and major celebrities joined in the season long celebration, but it's a new year and it's time to get back to business.

Which, with SNL, usually means some cast changes—out with the old (and sometimes not so old) and in with the new. Show creator and producer Lorne Michaels recently announced SNL would return on October 4 with a literal handful—five—cast changes.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kari Lake; Charlie Kirk
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Kari Lake Slammed After Warning Parents Not To Send Their Kids To College After Charlie Kirk Murder

Speaking during a memorial service for far-right activist Charlie Kirk at the Kennedy Center, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake—now the Trump administration's Senior Advisor for the U.S. Agency for Global Media—called U.S. colleges “indoctrination camps” and urged parents not to send their children.

Lake ignored the fact that Kirk was killed while speaking at a college, in this case Utah Valley University (UVU), the largest university by enrollment in Utah.

Keep ReadingShow less
JD Vance; Charlie Kirk
Real America's Voice

Vance Claims Kirk Never Insulted Black Women's 'Brain Processing Power'—And Here Come The Receipts

Vice President JD Vance served as host of the late far-right activist Charlie Kirk's podcast this week and was called out after claiming Kirk "never uttered" words about the "brain processing power" of Black women—even though Kirk said as much in 2023.

Vance made the claim after Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah—a Black woman—said she was dismissed from the paper following social media posts on gun control and race after Kirk’s assassination.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Donald Trump
Fox News

Trump Swiftly Fact-Checked After Making Bonkers Claim About How Many Americans Died From Drugs Last Year

President Donald Trump was criticized after attempting to justify the bombing of a suspected Venezuelan drug boat by asserting that 300 million people died from drugs last year.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump was asked about the order he gave earlier this month to destroy a boat he suspected of transporting drugs off the coast of Venezuela, rather than simply intercepting it. All 11 people on board the boat were killed.

Keep ReadingShow less
A woman's hand hold up a pink paper constructed heart that is on fire.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

People Reveal The Pettiest Reasons They Stopped Hooking Up With Someone

Sex is a powerful weapon and a natural part of life.

But it can bamboozle and surprise you.

Keep ReadingShow less