New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday uttered the N-word during a live radio interview while discussing racist slurs against Italian Americans.

Mr. Cuomo, referencing a New York Times editorial titled, “How Italians Became ‘White,” spoke to WAMC about how racists used to describe Italian immigrants as “n–-r wops,” using the uncensored version of the slur, the New York Post reported.

“They used an expression that southern Italians were called, I believe they were saying southern Italians, Sicilians — I’m half Sicilian — were called, quote-unquote and pardon my language, but I’m just quoting the Times: ‘n–-r wops.’ N-word wops, as a derogatory comment,” Mr. Cuomo said.

“When I said that ‘wop’ was a derogatory comment, that was when the Times Union told me, no, you should look in Wikipedia, ‘wop’ really meant a dandy,” he said.

Earlier this year, the governor defended his CNN host brother Chris Cuomo after a video went viral showing the anchor delivering an expletive-filled tirade to a heckler who called him “Fredo,” which he equated to the N-word for Italian-Americans.

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