Republican New York House candidate Carl Paladino, who’s been endorsed by House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), shared an unhinged rant on his Facebook page last week that pushed conspiracy theories about the shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo.
The tirade, which was apparently written by a person named “Jeff Briggs,” was posted on Paladino’s now-deleted Facebook page on June 1, according to screenshots published by Media Matters, which was the first to report on the post.
The post ranted that “they call it gun control, but what they really mean is population control,” and suggested that mass shootings were false flag operations devised by the government to take away people’s guns.
“In almost every mass shooting including the most recent horrific Buffalo Tops Market & the Texas school shootings, there are strange occurrences that are never fully explained,” the post claimed.
The screed also compared the Uvalde elementary school shooting to the death of accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, saying that “the absence of crisis leaders reminds me of the broken cameras and napping guards when Epstein committed suicide.”
The post also argued that mass shootings “tended to explode when there is a Democrat in the WH who would not hesitate to revoke the 2nd amendment and take away guns.” Obviously mass shooting massacres also happen under Republicans — Parkland and Las Vegas happened during ex-President Donald Trump’s presidency.
Paladino denied posting the screed on Tuesday, telling the Buffalo News that he had “no idea” how it ended up on his page, which has since been deleted.
“That wasn’t me,” the candidate said. “I told my secretary to remove it. It was just terrible and I would never write something like that.”
Also, “I don’t even know how to post on Facebook,” he insisted.
The candidate similarly claimed ignorance when contacted by local outlet News 4 on Tuesday.
“I don’t know what you’re referring to right now,” he said. “Somebody’s been able to post stuff at my Facebook, so we just terminated Facebook.”
The Republican is running for retiring Rep. Chris Jacobs’ (R-NY) seat in the New York GOP primaries.
Paladino, who’s made a failed bid for New York governor and worked on ex-President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, has an ugly history of making deranged comments.
In 2016, Paladino said he hoped then-President Barack Obama “dies” and that First Lady Michelle Obama gets “set loose in the outback of Zimbabwe” to live with a gorilla.
Paladino also proposed putting welfare recipients in prison when he was running for governor in 2010.
