Council Ethics Commitee opts to look into Paladino's (R) anti-Muslim rhetoric
The New York City Council Committee on Standards and Ethics voted Thursday to look into the conduct of Republican Council Member Vickie Paladino over Islamophobic remarks she made on social media last weekend, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
The five-member committee voted to do so on the day of the last full council meeting of the year, meaning any investigation into Paladino’s conduct will likely be overseen by a newly formed ethics committee under the new council led by presumptive Speaker Julie Menin. A spokesperson for the speaker’s office said that the next ethics committee will likely not need to vote again in the new session to reopen the matter.
Paladino declined to comment because it was her understanding that “nothing had happened” as a result of Thursday’s ethics committee meeting. It was also her understanding that the committee had “disbanded” with the end of session and ahead of the appointment of new committee members come January.
Paladino is known for her provocative, often offensive rhetoric on social media, but her statements over the weekend were even more widely condemned than usual. “We’re in the midst of a global jihad the likes of which the world has never seen, and we cannot ignore it,” Paladino wrote in response to a deadly antisemitic terror attack targeting a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia. “We need to take very seriously the need to begin the expulsion of Muslims from western nations, or at the very least the severe sanction of them within western borders.” That tweet garnered a wave of criticism from many of her colleagues, including outgoing City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. While Paladino eventually deleted the post on Monday afternoon after Menin asked her to do so, she doubled down on the offensive rhetoric throughout the week. In an op-ed published Wednesday in the Queens Jewish Link, Paladino called for mass deportations of “radical Muslims and those who support them” and the development of a legal framework for denaturalization.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2025/12/council-ethics-commitee-opts-look-paladinos-anti-muslim-rhetoric/410301/?oref=csny-skybox-hp