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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Politics
Phil Thomas

New York governor Andrew Cuomo says the n-word during live radio interview

New York governor Andrew Cuomo used the n-word during a live radio interview while discussing discrimination against people of Italian origin.

Referring to an article in The New York Times, the Democrat told WAMC host Alan Chartrock: “Going back to the Italian Americans because now you have me.

"They used an expression that southern Italians, Sicilians – I’m half Sicilian -  were called quote-unquote, and pardon my language, but I’m just quoting the Times, n****r wops.

“N-word wops as a derogatory comment.

“When I said that ‘wop’ was a derogatory comment, that was when the Times Union told me, no, you should look in Wikipedia, ‘wop’ really meant a dandy.”

Laughing, he added: “I'm sure that's what they were saying to me back in Queens - ‘You're a dandy’, when they looked at me with scorn and gave me a hand gesture and called me wop. So that's the New York Times."

In August the governor’s younger brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, was filmed threatening a man who had called him Fredo – a reference to a weak and incompetent character in The Godfather films.

In the video Cuomo claims that ‘Fredo’ is “like the n-word” for people of Italian descent. 

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