If Erie County executive Chris Collins decides to run for governor, he probably won’t be campaigning as a bridge-builder. In a speech before fellow Republicans in Buffalo over the weekend, Collins said that it’s generally accepted that Napoleon and Adolf Hitler were the first two Antichrists, and he was “pretty sure” that Assembly speaker and Orthodox jew Sheldon Silver was the third. Yep the Antichrist label applies to two men who were responsible for decades of war and millions of deaths, and also an old Jewish man responsible for passing bills in the New York State Assembly. As might be expected (or maybe it’s pleasantly surprising?), the apparent joke was not well received. “No one clapped. No one cheered. No one laughed,” one Republican attendee told the Daily News. Collins has since apologized, but a Democrat from Erie County says it won’t be the last time. “The statewide media can expect to see a lot more of these types of foot-in-mouth moments … He’s an extremist who doesn’t think before he speaks.” Really? Well, in that case Collins for governor!
Erie County Executive Collins regrets comparing Sheldon Silver to Hitler, anti-Christ [NYDN]
