Story highlights Cuomo called the comments "racist, ugly and reprehensible."

Paladino was a co-chair of Trump's statewide campaign and spoke before him at some rallies in the state.

Washington (CNN) A New York Republican who served as Donald Trump's campaign co-chair in the state is under fire for saying he hopes President Barack Obama will die of Mad Cow disease and making racist comments about first lady Michelle Obama.

Carl Paladino, an ally of Trump who recently visited Trump Tower, told a weekly paper in Buffalo that Michelle Obama was the person whom he would "most like to see go in 2017."

"I'd like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla," Paladino said.

Of Barack Obama, Paladino said in response to the question of what he would most like to see happen next year, "Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her."

Long a provocative figure in New York politics, Paladino was a co-chair of Trump's statewide campaign and spoke before him at some rallies in the state.

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