GOP House candidate endorsed by Elise Stefanik said Hitler is 'the kind of leader we need today' in a 2021 interview, calling the Nazi ruler 'inspirational' and 'a doer'

• New York House candidate Carl Paladino said Adolf Hitler is "the kind of leader we need today."
• Paladino made the remarks in a WBEN radio interview in June 2021.

Carl Paladino, a Republican congressional candidate in New York, described the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler as "the kind of leader we need today" during a June 2021 radio interview.

Paladino's remarks to WBEN were unearthed by Media Matters, a left-leaning nonprofit organization that reports on right-wing media.

"I was thinking the other day about [how] somebody had mentioned on the radio Adolf Hitler and how he aroused the crowds," Paladino said in the interview when asked how he would boost voter enthusiasm. "And he would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just — they were hypnotized by him. That's, I guess, I guess that's the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer, has been there and done it."

Paladino, a controversial figure who ran against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2010, went on to say the New York GOP was "sound asleep" and criticized his party's communications strategy.

"They don't get up with new press releases to comment on this issue, comment on that issue," Paladino said. "I mean, there should be a debate going on in the newspaper every day."

Paladino denied that he praised Hitler in his 2021 comments, but conceded it was a "serious mistake" to invoke the Nazi leader.

"Any implication that I support Hitler or any of the sick and disgusting actions of the Nazi regime is a new low for the media," Paladino said in the statement. "The context of my statement was in regards to something I heard on the radio from someone else and was repeating, I understand that invoking Hitler in any context is a serious mistake and rightfully upsets people. I strongly condemn the murderous atrocities committed against the Jewish people by Hitler and the Nazis.

In a Thursday interview with The Buffalo News, Paladino said he picked the wrong historical figure.

"I should have used Churchill," he told the paper.

On June 3, Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third highest-ranking Republican in the House, endorsed her fellow New Yorker for his bid in the 23rd district, which covers and area around Buffalo and the state's Southern Tier along the Pennsylvania border.

The congresswoman described Paladino as "a friend" and a "conservative outsider." Paladino is expected to run up against Nick Langworthy, the chairman of the New York State Republican Committee, in the primary set for August 23, which coincides with a special election to pick who will serve the remainder of Rep. Tom Reed, who resigned in May.

Stefanik's campaign did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

Paladino deactivated his Facebook page on Tuesday after his account promoted a conspiracy theory regarding the May mass shooting in Buffalo. The candidate denied posting the message.

"I don't post," Paladino said, according to WIVB, the CBS affiliate in Buffalo. "I don't even know how to get on Facebook. My assistant does our posting only when I told her to post things."