’Insane and racist’: Rudy Giuliani takes heat for saying Chancellor Carranza ‘belongs in Cuba'
Rudy Giuliani drew a barrage of criticism and accusations of racism on Wednesday for saying that the city’s Arizona-born schools chancellor “belongs in Cuba.”
Giuliani took the eyebrow-raising shot at Chancellor Richard Carranza — who’s of Mexican-American descent — while railing against Mayor de Blasio’s administration during a combative press conference in Midtown.
“We haven’t even talked about the conditions in schools, which are a sin,” the ex-mayor said. “You only get a certain opportunity to give children a good education and for some of these kids, it’s going to be blown forever because he is the mayor and because he has a chancellor that belongs in Cuba.”
Carranza’s press secretary, Miranda Barbot, said Giuliani’s comments were particularly offensive because he made them on Mexico’s Independence Day.
“A cool (read: racist, inaccurate) thing to say on Mexican Independence Day about the highest-ranking Latino and Mexican-American in NYC government,” Barbot tweeted. “Rudy and his boss never fail to show us who they are: washed up, unabashed racists at every turn.”
Barbot added of her boss: “Also, he’s from Tucson.”
Giuliani, who these days is best known for serving as President Trump’s personal lawyer, defended his Carranza slight, saying in a text message that he was merely criticizing the chancellor’s progressive policies and referenced Cuba as an “example of socialism.”
But de Blasio, who served as a veritable political punching bag during Giuliani’s Midtown press conference, didn’t buy his predecessor’s explanation.
“Fact check: Chancellor Carranza is Mexican American. Rudy Giuliani is irrelevant and represents everything WRONG with this country,” de Blasio tweeted.
Brooklyn-representing Assemblyman Robert Carroll put it more bluntly: “Insane and racist.”
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