New York Governor Candidate Gets in Physical Fight with Reporter
Carl Paladino, the loony Republican candidate for Governor of New York, had to be separated from Post reporter Fred Dicker after the two got into a physical altercation. Want to see two middle-aged men get up in each other's business?
Paladino, who is just totally nuts in a way that is entertaining and a little bit frightening, accused Dicker—the New York Post state editor—of being a "stalking horse" and a "bird dog" for his opponent, Andrew Cuomo, after Dicker supposedly had a photographer follow Paladino's 10-year-old daughter (from a woman who is not Paladino's wife). Dicker was also hounding Paladino for evidence of Paladino's out-of-nowhere claim that Cuomo has been unfaithful to his wife.
Capital Tonight's Kaitlyn Ross took video on her cell phone, thank God. A description of the bout:
Michael Caputo, Paladino's campaign manager, tried to diffuse the situation with some levity, saying: "Fred, you're out of line, you're off the Christmas card list." (That's a reference to Caputo's response to Joy Behar's criticism of his candidate on "The View" earlier this week).
But then Caputo continued to lay into Dicker, accusing him of "working for Cuomo" and calling him a "terrible journalist." Caputo also said Dicker would no longer be receiving any more communications from the Paladino campaign.