David Paterson Calls Reid's Comments 'Shocking,' Responds to Son's Run-in with Police

New York Gov. David Paterson discussed his son's recent run-in with police during an interview with Don Imus on the Fox Business Network Wednesday morning. The two also talked about the controversy over Harry Reid's published comments that President Obama has "no Negro dialect unless he wants to."

Paterson's son was stopped by New York police Tuesday outside of his high school where he and several friends were playing dice. Paterson said that his son was not arrested, but was merely detained, questioned, and released. He added that no money was involved in the dice games and called the incident "a non-issue." Of his son, he said, "He's annoyed because he didn't do anything wrong."

Imus also asked Paterson, one of two black governors in the country, to respond to Reid's comments about President Obama. Imus said it's "a lame excuse" to say Reid's heart is in the right place, as many of Reid's allies have done. "I never used the defense that I'm a good guy, which I am." Imus was referring to his April, 2007 reference to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Imus apologized for the remark at the time, and was defended by friends for his extensive work for children with cancer, but he was eventually ousted from MSNBC.

Paterson said he found Reid's comments "shocking," but added, "If the president forgives him, I forgive him." He then went into discussion of race in America, and being discriminated against for being both disabled and African-American, saying he sometimes thought of people of his own race who looked down on him. "I would have thought you all understood discrimination." Video below, well worth watching.