After posting Islamophobic rhetoric on social media over the weekend, Republican City Council Member Vickie Paladino garnered strong criticism Monday from outgoing City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. Incoming City Council Speaker Julie Menin said she asked Paladino to take the post down and called it “abhorrent.” Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who will be the city’s first Muslim mayor, said in a statement: “A million Muslims live in New York City. We belong here, as does every other New Yorker. This is vile Islamophobia from the Councilwoman and it has no place in our city.”
Paladino’s since-deleted tweet, fired off early Sunday morning in wake of a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, that killed at least 15 people, called for the “expulsion of Muslims from western nations, or at the very least severe sanction of them within western borders.” “The administration needs to begin developing a formal legal framework for the denaturalization process and get it over with before we end up with another 9/11 or worse,” Paladino wrote. She also reposted a number of tweets conveying similar Islamophobic sentiments.
While Sydney authorities said they found evidence that the attack was an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community, further details about the suspects’ ideology, motive and background have not been released. Fallout from the devastating shooting has stretched out across New York City, where more than 1 million Jews and over 750,000 Muslims live. The attack has been broadly decried by city leaders – Jewish, Muslim and beyond alike.
Paladino’s words were condemned by many of her City Council colleagues, including Adams, who described the tweet as “hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric that threatens the safety of us all.” The speaker also suggested that there should be consequences. “It should have no place in our city and nation, and instead has become common behavior from this particular council member,” Adams wrote. “It is the responsibility of the Council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics to bring disciplinary action against Council Members, as officials democratically elected by New Yorkers.”
Paladino took the post down, but she has not apologized or retracted the message. Quite the contrary. Shortly after this story was published, she told City & State via text, “It’s been clear for a while that progressives don’t value freedom of speech, but I find it very funny that they’re so apocalyptic about this tweet, while their own social media accounts and those of their leftist allies in the (Democratic Socialists of America) spew some of the most toxic, violent, and anti-American rhetoric on a daily basis. Once again progressives are acting like the PR wing and defense attorneys for radical Islam after a wave of terror attacks, and the West is going to have to deal with this dangerous reality soon enough.”
Denouncing Paladino’s rhetoric has not been limited to the chamber’s more progressive members, though the Progressive Caucus did call on the Committee on Standards and Ethics to “investigate and fast track the process for censure by the full Council.” Incoming Council Member Kayla Santosuosso, a Democrat who will represent a purple district in southern Brooklyn that is home to a large Muslim community, wrote on X, “Really can’t emphasize enough how much I’m not looking forward to working with you. Urging my colleagues on the Standards and Ethics Committee to take this up immediately.”
Asked whether Adams was calling on the committee to bring disciplinary action against Paladino, a City Council spokesperson declined to elaborate beyond the speaker’s statement. Technically, the five-person ethics committee can take action on its own without a seal of approval from the speaker. Council Member Sandra Ung, who chairs the Committee on Standards and Ethics, did not respond when asked if the committee has received any referral from Adams, or if they would convene to address it on their own. Other members of the committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The committee typically does not discuss its activities publicly.
Menin, who will assume leadership over the City Council in the New Year, meanwhile did not call for Paladino to be censured, but she did call for unity – and said she’d asked the Republican council member to take down the post. “I asked Council Member Paladino to take down the post, and she did. I also urged that in this moment, we need to bring all communities together, not further divide them,” Menin, who is Jewish, wrote in a tweet. “Rhetoric that vilifies an entire community only serves to inflame tensions at a moment when New Yorkers must come together to address our shared challenges. This is a time to uplift all communities, not sow divisions.” Paladino is among the group of 36 lawmakers who pledged two weeks ago to support Menin in the upcoming speaker vote.
“The comments are abhorrent. Targeting the Muslim community is completely unacceptable and unbelievably divisive, which is why I called Council Member Paladino and asked her to take the statement down,” Menin told City & State.
Paladino’s tweet remained visible for at least an hour after Menin said it was taken down.
Paladino’s son, Thomas Paladino Jr., who advises her campaign and writes much of her social media content, told City & State via text shortly before 4 p.m., “I think Menin’s chief reached out but we haven’t talked about deleting it, unless she promised something I’m not aware of which is possible just to make Menin’s life easier, but we haven’t talked about that.
“Regardless the tweet reflects her opinion and she’s not going to apologize for it,” he wrote. He added that “we’re going to put up a follow up tweet to elaborate later today.” Shortly after City & State contacted Paladino Jr., the post was down. Asked about Menin, Paladino told City & State in a text, “Julie is in a tough situation. I did support her (for) speaker and I still support her (for) speaker. I made my stance very clear with Julie. I will no longer or be making any apologies. I did this for her.”
This isn’t the first time Paladino’s online rhetoric has sparked outcry – far from it. In 2022, the council member compared Drag Story Hour to child grooming, leading many to call for her censure. She was ultimately removed from the council’s Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addictions as a result of the comments. Many of Paladino’s tweets are written by Paladino Jr. after discussion between the mother-son duo. But even as Paladino Jr. admits many of the council member’s posts are designed to be provocative – and certainly are – Sunday’s post has crossed a line.
Council Member Shahana Hanif, one of two Muslims serving in the City Council, expressed doubt that any actual discipline will be brought against Paladino. “I’m old enough to remember calling for Council Member Inna Vernikov to be censured and expelled for brandishing a gun to intimidate students peacefully protest at Brooklyn College. There were no consequences,” she wrote in a tweet, referencing the 2023 incident involving another one of her Republican colleagues. “Now Council Member Vickie Paladino openly calls for the expulsion of Muslims, without even attempting to mask her Islamophobia. And she, too, will likely face no consequences.”
