New York governor Andrew Cuomo says the n-word during live radio interview

Veteran Democrat insists he is just quoting newspaper, months after his brother was filmed ranting about being called 'Fredo'

New York governor Andrew Cuomo used the n-word during a live radio interview while discussing discrimination against people of Italian origin.

Referring to an article in The New York Times, the Democrat told WAMC host Alan Chartrock: “Going back to the Italian Americans because now you have me.

"They used an expression that 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.

“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.”

Laughing, he added: “I'm sure that's what they were saying to me back in Queens - ‘You're a dandy’, when they looked at me with scorn and gave me a hand gesture and called me wop. So that's the New York Times."

In August the governor’s younger brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, was filmed threatening a man who had called him Fredo – a reference to a weak and incompetent character in The Godfather films.

In the video Cuomo claims that ‘Fredo’ is “like the n-word” for people of Italian descent.