{"id":102871,"date":"2026-01-17T00:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/102871\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T00:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T00:57:07","slug":"vickie-paladino-takes-to-the-airwaves-to-attack-julie-menin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/102871\/","title":{"rendered":"Vickie Paladino takes to the airwaves to attack Julie Menin"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City Council Member Vickie Paladino slammed Speaker Julie Menin in a radio interview Friday,<\/a> accusing the newly elected speaker of blindsiding her. Not by appointing her to only two committees this session \u2013 a steep downgrade from the seven the Republican served on last year. But for attributing the decision to Paladino\u2019s \u201cabhorrent\u201d social media posts at a press conference on Thursday.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere I let Adrienne Adams get away with a whole lot of stuff, I am not about to allow (Menin) to do that to me,\u201d Paladino warned in an interview with right-wing radio personality Sid Rosenberg. \u201cShe swore to me she would never \u2026 to take a public forum in front of the New York City media and do that was unconscionable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a press conference Thursday, Menin was asked why she\u2019d only assigned the provocative council member to serve on two committees: those pertaining to veterans and emergency management. Explaining her calculus, the speaker pointed to the many offensive remarks Paladino has made on social media including a tweet last month<\/a> calling for the \u201cexpulsion of Muslims from Western nations.\u201d That particular post ignited a firestorm of criticism \u2013 and a few days later, the Council Committee on Standards and Ethics voted to look into Paladino<\/a> for her conduct. Menin also pointed to that investigation Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are numerous, numerous \u2013 too many to count \u2013 content on her social media that is abhorrent and is unacceptable,\u201d Menin said. \u201cI made that decision about the committees with that in mind because we are not going to tolerate that kind of conduct and that kind of divisiveness within the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the radio interview, Paladino argued that she\u2019d told Menin that she wanted to only serve on two committees. \u201cI don\u2019t look at that as a punishment,\u201d she said of her assignments. \u201cI look at that as an honor.\u201d She claimed that she\u2019d trusted Menin, that she\u2019d decided to vote for her as speaker because she hoped she\u2019d steer the council \u201cin a very center sort of way,\u201d but calling her out in that way was \u201ca big mistake.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe could have done this differently,\u201d Paladino said, arguing that Menin could have relayed her concerns to Republican Minority Leader David Carr privately instead. \u201cFor her to choose such strong words against me, to kowtow to one particular council member who does nothing but bash me by name on Twitter, you know what? She better look at her other council members’ Twitter accounts because they are pretty egregious as well.\u201d Toward the end of the interview, Paladino said she plans to take the high road and looks forward to a one-on-one meeting with Menin \u201cto clear the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paladino has a long history of generating controversy. While former Speaker Adrienne Adams booted her from the <\/a>City Council\u2019s Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction in 2023 for disparaging comments she made against the LGBTQ community, she\u2019s never been formally censured. Some members expressed frustration to<\/a> City & State last month that not enough disciplinary action has historically been taken against Paladino.<\/p>\n

Council Member Shahana Hanif, presumably the colleague Paladino referenced, praised the speaker for taking action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMenin understood the situation and acted accordingly,\u201d Hanif, one of the council\u2019s two Muslim members, told City & State. \u201cMy focus remains on serving my constituents and doing the work \u2013 across seven committees, including one I chair. I hope my colleague chooses to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the speaker declined to comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paladino, for her part, took the opportunity to address Menin directly, saying: \u201cJulie, you made a big mistake yesterday. At our lunch, did I not say to you, if you come after me, I have the media on my side. I will not tolerate that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City Council Member Vickie Paladino slammed Speaker Julie Menin in a radio interview Friday, accusing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,1057,2327,63],"class_list":["post-102871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-council","tag-news-politics","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}