Among Republicans, White Supremacists Are More Common Than Air: GOP State Senate Candidate Calls MSNBC Reporter 'A Dirty Ape'

Jim Coughlan.
(Ireneshih/WikimediaCommons)

Jim Coughlan, the Dutchess County controller and a candidate for state Senate, said he had no idea that Harris-Perry is black and denied the comment had racist undertones. And no, Coughlan is not running from the deep South, but from upstate New York.




By Kenneth Lovett
A Dutchess County official has touched off a furor by telling a black MSNBC news anchor on Twitter, “Keep your stinking paws off my kid, you damned dirty ape.”

The remark by Jim Coughlan, the Dutchess County controller and a candidate for state Senate, was directed at Melissa Harris-Perry in response to remarks she made about child-rearing that upset many conservatives.

Coughlan said he had no idea that Harris-Perry is black and denied the comment had racist undertones, saying he simply repeating a “well-known quote from the Planet of the Apes.”

"I don't watch MSNBC," he said. "I don't know about their stories or their journalists.”

But Democrats ripped his online behavior — and even some fellow Republicans distanced themselves from him.

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