N.Y. Rep. Apologizes Over Use of N-Word
This story is from reporter Magee Hickey of CBS Station WCBS-TV in New York.
New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) is apologizing for repeating a racial slur, when she quoted another person during an interview. Now it's lots of mea culpas as the Senate hopeful plays damage control.
Maloney made the potentially damaging gaffe in an interview in City Hall News, a political website, and the timing couldn't be worse. Just a week before the Upper East Side Democrat is expected to launch a primary challenge to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand next fall, Maloney is now apologizing to the public.
Maloney was criticizing Gillibrand while repeating a conversation she'd had with someone who was upset by the new senator's stance on English-only education, a big issue in the Hispanic community.
Maloney said on the website:
"I got a call from someone from Puerto Rico, said (Gillibrand) went to Puerto Rico and came out for English-only (education). And he said, 'It was like saying the n-word to a Puerto Rican,'" she said, using the full racial slur.
The Reverand Al Sharpton, who is supporting Gillibrand, immediately called Maloney's use of the n-word "alarming."
"No public official, even in quoting someone else, should loosely use such an offensive term and should certainly challenge someone using the term to him or her," Sharpton said in a statement.
The 9-term congresswoman apologized Monday for using the word she finds "disgusting."
"I apologize for having repeated a word I find disgusting," Maloney said in a statement. "It's no excuse but I was so caught up in relaying the story exactly as it was told to me that, in doing so, I repeated a word that should never be repeated."