A state lawmaker is under fire from three ex-staffers who claim they were canned for suggesting he take a stronger stance against white supremacy in response to last week’s mass shooting in Buffalo.
Assemblyman Patrick Burke’s former staffers told The Post on Saturday the Buffalo Democrat initially planned to speak out against white supremacy on the Assembly floor — and even asked them to put together a presentation.
However, the ex-staffers said his attitude suddenly changed a day later, and they were terminated Tuesday, following a heated exchange where they made their concerns known.
“We tried to say, ‘Hey, man, you know, we live in this part of Buffalo that people regard as being racist, and we know we have an extremism and a racism problem here in Erie County, and we feel that … as an office, we got to call this out,’” recalled Matthew Dearing, who was Burke’s director of community relations.
“He said, ‘No’ — stick to the program!’ ”
Dearing also said Burke made it clear he didn’t want to risk losing his Assembly seat by taking a stance against white supremacy.
“He proceeded to tell us in no uncertain terms that we were not going to be doing anything substantial about this issue,” Dearing recalled. “He told us and I quote, ‘I’m not giving up my seat for this issue.'”
Ex-legislative director Nicole Golias recalled Burke making “fun of” a push by Assemblywoman Monica Wallace (D-Lancaster) to form a commission to combat white supremacy.
“He made fun of another assemblywoman who was proposing … a commission on rooting out white supremacy and was saying like, ‘Oh, that’s gonna be like, futile or hokey,'” Golias said.
The third person let go was Brendan Keany, an ex-communications director.
Burke, 37, didn’t return a message Saturday.
But he previously told the Buffalo News his former underlings were let go for “gross insubordination” following a fierce exchange at his district office, where they accused him of being a “political coward.”
“One of the workers called my family ‘lily-white,’ in spite of knowing that I have a mixed-race family,” Burke insisted. “I’m married to a woman who is Puerto Rican, and we have three mixed-race children.”
Burke has served on the state Assembly since 2019 and was previously a legislator for Erie County.