GOP House candidate endorsed by Elise Stefanik said Hitler is 'the kind of leader we need today' in a 2021 interview, calling the Nazi ruler 'inspirational' and 'a doer'

• New York House candidate Carl Paladino said Adolf Hitler is "the kind of leader we need today."

• Paladino made the remarks in a WBEN radio interview in June 2021.

• "I understand that invoking Hitler in any context is a serious mistake," he told Insider on Thursday.

Carl Paladino, a Republican congressional candidate in New York, described the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler as "the kind of leader we need today" during a June 2021 radio interview.

Paladino's remarks to WBEN were unearthed by Media Matters, a left-leaning nonprofit organization that reports on right-wing media.

"I was thinking the other day about [how] somebody had mentioned on the radio Adolf Hitler and how he aroused the crowds," Paladino said in the interview when asked how he would boost voter enthusiasm. "And he would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just — they were hypnotized by him. That's, I guess, I guess that's the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer, has been there and done it."

Paladino, a controversial figure who ran against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2010, went on to say the New York GOP was "sound asleep" and criticized his party's communications strategy.

"They don't get up with new press releases to comment on this issue, comment on that issue," Paladino said. "I mean, there should be a debate going on in the newspaper every day."

Paladino denied that he praised Hitler in his 2021 comments, but conceded it was a "serious mistake" to invoke the Nazi leader.

"Any implication that I support Hitler or any of the sick and disgusting actions of the Nazi regime is a new low for the media," Paladino said in the statement. "The context of my statement was in regards to something I heard on the radio from someone else and was repeating, I understand that invoking Hitler in any context is a serious mistake and rightfully upsets people. I strongly condemn the murderous atrocities committed against the Jewish people by Hitler and the Nazis.