He’s really milking this one.
GOP mayoral hopeful John Catsimatidis yesterday pounced on rival Joe Lhota for disagreeing with the decision to shut down part of a Brooklyn subway line to rescue two kittens who wandered onto the tracks.
The cat fight started Saturday night with a tweet from Catsimatidis, who declared, “I Love ALL Kittens.” It included a picture of him holding a Bengal tiger cub about 20 years ago.
Then yesterday he continued his Lhota-hates-kittens campaign, tweeting a link to a YouTube video featuring the rescued felines, Arthur and August.
The text read, “The beautiful story of August and Arthur, the little kittens lost in the subway and the mean, nasty man who might have killed them.”
In another tweet, Catsimatidis hissed, “What do NYC Kittens & SI mothers against legalization of pot have in common? Both think @JoeLhota is wrong for #NYC.”
Lhota, the former MTA head, once said he would not oppose the legalization of weed.
“What do Port Auth Police Inspectors & little Kittens have in common? Neither like @JoeLhota,” Catsimatidis said in another.
That was a reference to Lhota’s once describing Port Authority officers as “mall cops.”
Lhota immediately apologized.
But Catsimatidis answered at the time with an ad starring retired Port Authority Detective John Kassimatis, who spent 36 years with the PAPD and was in the North Tower during the Sept. 11 attacks.
“When a bureaucrat like Joe Lhota calls me a mall cop, he offends every police officer,” Kassimatis says.
“Mr. Lhota, I’m no mall cop. Got it?”
Lhota campaign consultant Jake Menges finally decided it was time to stop pussyfooting around.
He fired off his own tweet: “Somebody tell @JCats2013 it’s over & he should try and lose with a shred of dignity & stop the despicable lies and attacks!”
Meanwhile, it turns out that Kassimatis’ Facebook page is filled with anti-Muslim rants.
One claims, “All terrorists are Muslims.”
“There’s gratitude for you. You bring them here from their 3rd world s–thole give them refuse [sic] and education and then they kill us. Wake Up America,” he wrote April 19.
When some of his Facebook friends disagreed, he went on to say:
“So stop telling me about peaceful ones and kumbaya these animals must be put down.”
Catsimatidis campaign insisted that Kassimatis was referring only to Muslims involved in the Boston Marathon bombing.
Reached by The Post, Kassimatis insisted he’s no racist, he just never met a good Muslim.
“If they can’t convert you, they have to eliminate you,’’ he said.
“I’m no religious fanatic, but Moses never killed anybody. Jesus never killed anybody.’’
Asked if he thinks any Muslims are good people, he said, “I’ve been looking for a good one. If you know of any, please let me know. I’d love to meet them.’’
Kassimatis said that he lost a member of his family on 9/11.
He reiterated he was at the Trade Center during the attack and acknowledged he also saw Lhota there.
Despite that, he refused to forgive Lhota for the “mall cop’’ crack.