Donald Trump's honorary New York co-chair Carl Paladino said "by far [Trump's] not a racist." | AP Photo Trump N.Y. co-chair: 'Racist' word 'always pushes back on the white guy'

Donald Trump is "not a racist," Carl Paladino, the honorary co-chair of his Republican campaign said Monday.

"By far he's not a racist," Paladino told CNN after host Carol Costello mentioned a piece from The Resurgent's Erick Erickson calling Trump's attacks against Judge Gonzalo Curiel racist.


Erickson, who has said he will never support Trump, "just likes to use the term racist," Paladino said.

"This is incredible that you want to pull this word out and use it because it always pushes back on the white guy. That's not fair," he continued. "And it's not a fair description of Donald Trump. Donald Trump might have some anxiety about this particular judge because he lives in the same real world that I do where this type of thing does go on, where the ethnicity means something, OK?"

Paladino was also asked why Curiel's ethnicity means something while the judges in the New York case do not, such as Judge Angela Mazarelli's Italian heritage.

"Sometimes it does. Sometimes it does in this world that we're in out here," Paladino said.

Costello remarked, "Oh, Carl," as he continued, "The press comes in with all this holy grail stuff. It doesn't work that way. This is the real world, and in the real world you have considerations like that when you're looking at why am I getting sued?"

Paladino himself has had a brush with racially charged controversies.

During his 2010 run for governor, Paladino apologized after sending a series of racially insensitive and sexual explicit emails, including one that showed an African tribal dance as rehearsal for President Barack Obama's inauguration.