Councilmember Vickie Paladino is facing calls for formal disciplinary proceedings after publishing dozens of anti-Muslim posts on social media, including one Sunday calling for the “expulsion of Muslims from western nations.”
The posts, made after the Hanukkah shooting on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, received backlash from her colleagues, with several councilmembers calling for her censure. Fifteen people were killed in the massacre, described by the Australian prime minister as an antisemitic act of terror.
“We’re in the midst of a global jihad the likes of which the world has never seen, and we cannot ignore it,” the northeast Queens Republican wrote in one post, timestamped at 4:52 a.m. Sunday and later deleted. “We need to take very seriously the need to begin the expulsion of Muslims from western nations, or at the very least the severe sanction of them within western borders.”
The Council’s Progressive Caucus called for the Ethics Committee to begin and fast track the censure process so the full Council could vote on Paladino’s “heinous rhetoric.”
“For years, Paladino has engaged in a well-documented pattern of racist and inflammatory outbursts that have no place in our city and our politics,” the 17-member caucus said in a statement. “To continue to allow her to spew this hatred without consequences is unacceptable. We stand with Muslim New Yorkers and are united in condemning this latest tirade. We hope our colleagues will join us.”
Paladino has a history of highly controversial rhetoric and posts. A Daily News count showed that in total, Paladino tweeted or retweeted more than 80 anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant posts on Sunday. The posts refer to Muslims as “animals” and calling for “every single third worlder” to be deported.
Mayor-elect Mamdani, who has found himself the target of attacks based on his Muslim faith including from Paladino, also condemned the councilmember’s comments.
“A million Muslims live in New York City. We belong here, as does every other New Yorker,” he said in a statement. “This is vile Islamophobia from the Councilwoman and it has no place in our city.”
Paladino was unapologetic in her response.
“It’s been clear for a while that progressives don’t value freedom of speech, but I find it very funny that they’re so apocalyptic about this tweet, while their own social media accounts and those of their leftist allies in the DSA spew some of the most toxic, violent, and anti-American rhetoric on a daily basis,” Paladino said in response to the backlash.
“Once again progressives are acting like the PR wing and defense attorneys for radical Islam after a wave of terror attacks, and the West is going to have to deal with this dangerous reality soon enough.”
Julie Menin, the incoming Council speaker, said the post was taken down after she asked Paladino to do so, but did not go as far as to call for the Ethics Committee to open an investigation.
“These statements are unacceptable and targeting the whole Muslim committee is unacceptable, and this is extremely divisive and inflammatory rhetoric. I completely disavow these comments,” Menin told the Daily News.
There are just two weeks after before the Council will hit a reset in the new year, when Menin will make new committee appointments.
Speaker Adams took a similar tone, saying Paladino’s rhetoric “threatens the safety of us all.”
“It is the responsibility of the Council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics to bring disciplinary action against Council Members, as officials democratically elected by New Yorkers,” she said. “This committee must effectively hold Council Members accountable for violations of Council rules.”
