New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's taunt that "extreme conservatives" have no place in the Empire State — a remark hailed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — is an outrage, according to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
"This is incredibly demagogic and divisive. I would be objecting to a conservative who said if the liberals don't agree with us, then you ought to get out of our state. That's just simply divisive," Donohue told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"Now, we have the mayor of New York, de Blasio, [saying] he stands by Cuomo 100 percent? To say that people ought to leave the state, that you don't belong here, that you're not authentic New Yorkers?"
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On a radio show last week, Cuomo outaged conservatives when he said “extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay... have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”
Not true at all, according to Donohue.
"I was born in Manhattan, I was raised in New York City, in Long Island, I went away for a while in the Air Force and as a professor in Pittsburgh, came back home," Donohue said.
"I am more a New Yorker than Wilhelm, which is what de Blasio's real name is. He's had two name changes before this one. I don't need him or the governor, the other great Catholic.
"I can't forget about Andrew Cuomo, who's always lecturing us about abortion, [telling] me that I don't belong here.
"They belong here. They have a right to be here. But we have a right to disagree, too."
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