We Have a Winner for 'Most Racist Attempt to Win Votes in New York's Mayoral Race'

With less than 24 hours to go before New Yorkers head to the polls to pick their city’s mayor, one of the men vying for the job really wants you to see an extremely Islamophobic tweet of his.

On Monday, mayoral candidate Bo Dietl—former NYC detective, sandwich spokesman, and loose inspiration for 1992’s Bad Lieutenant—briefly tweeted a picture of current mayor Bill de Blasio posing with activist and Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour.

“This city needs a Mayor with values that reflect its citizens,” Dietl wrote, questioning whether New Yorkers can “trust this guy with our homeland security needs?”

Almost immediately after sharing the offending image, Dietl deleted the tweet without offering an explanation.

Shortly thereafter, he tweeted that Sarsour was “a proponent of Sharia Law” (she’s not) drawing a line between her “values” and those of his NYC.

He then retweeted the original image, with a slightly different message:

Clearly, Dietl seems to be taking—and then attempting to put back—a page from his longtime “frenemy” Donald Trump’s playbook, resorting to Islamophobic fear-mongering in a frenetic attempt to smear his opponent in as bigoted a light as possible.

Despite his overtly racist bombast, it’s highly unlikely Dietl will get anywhere near NYC’s Gracie Mansion as anything other than an invited guest. de Blasio is cruising into election day with a massive 33 point lead over his nearest challenger—Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis.

Dietl, meanwhile, was forced to run as an independent candidate, after screwing up his filing papers and rendering himself unable to campaign with either major political party.