20 days ago
When Erie County Executive Chris Collins called NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver "The Anti-Christ" last weekend, it apparently was not the first time he told that highly-criticized joke to an audience.
Both a professor and students from Buffalo State College confirmed for 2 On Your Side that Collins made the same reference a month earlier while addressing a college class visiting the county's Rath Building.
Student Daniel Mucyn was among the group.
MUCYN: It was Napoleon, Hitler and Sheldon Silver.
REPORTER: Same exact joke?
MUCYN: Same exact joke.
REPORTER: You're positive?
MUCYN: Positive.
While speaking at an Erie County Republican dinner in Buffalo Saturday, Collins compared Speaker Silver, an Orthodox Jew, to Hitler. Collins' office said he was not ready from any prepared remarks. The "bad joke" (as Collins later called it) made statewide headlines, embarrassing Collins, a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2010.
Collins apologized both publicly and privately to Silver.
"In a setting where my guard was down, I made a joke that wasn't funny, and I've taken responsibility for that," Collins told 2 On Your Side Wednesday.
If Collins' remark was off the cuff, it was one he used before to those students.
REPORTER: Were you surprised?
MUCYN: I was a little surprised. I was taken back a little by the comment, but he was making a point. The point not being that he's the anti-Christ, there is a problem with too few people having power in New York State government.
Mucyn and his fellow students were taking a tour of government buildings in downtown Buffalo. The trip included a stop at city hall, where they were able to ask questions of Mayor Byron Brown.
When the group met with Collins, according to their professor, Collins gave a 20-minute lecture about the state's broken government. The lecture included the Anti-Christ reference multiple times, both the professor and Mucyn said. The two also said Collins told the class that, the way things are going in Albany, they'll all be "living under the bridge in cardboard boxes from Rosa's."
A spokesman for Collins did not deny he made the Anti-Christ comments to the students, but sent us the following statement:
"The County Executive, at times, uses very harsh language in taking on what he believes are opponents of the taxpayers. As the descendant of a Jewish grandfather, the county executive recognizes that this characterization of the Speaker is wrong. He has apologized for that characterization publicly, and personally apologized to the Speaker. The County Executive will not let this mistake, however, distract him from his focus on protecting taxpayers and challenging the status quo locally and in Albany."
