COHOES — Mayor Shawn Morse, who is facing federal indictment and is in the middle of a competitive primary for re-election, took to Facebook Friday to try to discredit former Cohoes mayor and current state Assemblyman John McDonald.

Morse followed the Facebook post, which has since been removed from his personal page, with a voice message left for one of McDonald's brothers, in which Morse called the assemblyman a "scumbag," "liar" and "piece of ----," according to a recording of the message obtained by the Times Union.

McDonald, who confirmed his brother received Morse's voice message, said Tuesday he does not know why the mayor is attacking him at this time, particularly because McDonald, a Democrat, has not endorsed anyone in the current four-way Democratic primary, he said.

"To make it clear — I'm not running as the mayor of Cohoes," McDonald said. He added, "I don't want to be the centerpiece of this election."

On Friday, Morse posted an image of what looks like an email that he alleged was written by McDonald in 2000 when McDonald was mayor.

The text of the alleged email claimed McDonald directed to have emergency medical services stop responding to senior complexes because "seniors donit (sic) pay tax and they cost us a lot of money." Morse was a leader in the city's firefighter's union at the time, and another sentence in the text reads, "putting Shawn in charge is the equivalent of having Hitler in charge."

Morse wrote in the Facebook post, "this is an email off the computer in Mayor McDonald's office!!! The righteous!"

On Tuesday, McDonald denied writing the email, saying "I highly question the authenticity of this document." The assemblyman said he first heard about the alleged existence of such an email back in 2005. "This has been going on for several years. Whenever he's upset with me, he pulls (the email) out," McDonald said.

The email Morse posted on Facebook was an image of what appears to be an email. Two words inside the send and receive information posted at the top of the email had the words "August," and "Subject" spelled wrong, as well as irregular spaces between a colon and comma in the "Sent" line.

Tom Scarff, Morse's campaign manager, said he remembers receiving the email in question when it was forwarded to him about two decades ago because Scarff was involved in Albany County politics. He said he could not swear to the authenticity of the email, but he believes McDonald wrote it because of the many details about city business contained in it.

McDonald said his two brothers defended him on Facebook after the post, which is when Morse sent a voice message to one of the brothers. The recording appeared to have been sent over Facebook Instant Messenger.

"Your family has been taking personal attacks against me from day one," Morse said in the voice message. "Your brother is a liar. He's nothing but a liar. He's a scumbag. He calls himself a statesmen. He's a piece of ----." Morse added, "I don't care if you publicize this or not."

Scarff said Morse was upset last week about McDonald's own comments on Facebook concerning allegations Morse had an officer suspended because he was supporting the candidacy of retired State Police major Bill Keeler.

"I've heard a lot worse from candidates who were involved in elections," Scarff said about Morse's comments on the voice message. "People have hot heads in this game."

The mayor is facing a seven-count felony indictment in federal court that alleges he had conspired with his former campaign treasurer to use thousands of dollars in political donations for personal expenditures. The charges also allege Morse lied to FBI agents when asked about the transactions. Morse's trial is scheduled to begin after the June 25 primary.

After Morse's wife placed a 911 call in November 2017, the Times Union has detailed other domestic violence allegations against Morse concerning his daughter and at least one former girlfriend. McDonald had previously confirmed to the Times Union an incident three decades ago when Morse was dating an employee at McDonald's family pharmacy, and dragged her out by the hair. State Police had opened an investigation into domestic abuse allegations, but no charges were filed.

Fellow Democrats, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy, then called on Morse to resign.

On Monday night, during a candidate forum held at Cohoes High School, Morse mentioned that he is sometimes too opinionated on Facebook; he did not cite a specific example.

"I am who I am. I have a strong personality," he told the crowd of a few hundred people.