Houston responds to Gov. Lamont’s ‘butt ugly’ comment

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) - Houston has been kind to the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team.

Two of the Huskies’ five national titles were won in the city, the most recent of which came on Monday. It commended the team.

It wasn’t as happy with Connecticut’s governor.

Gov. Ned Lamont was in the city for the last leg of UConn’s NCAA Tournament run, and reflected on his time there during Chaz & AJ, 99.1 WPLR’s morning show this week.

Lamont was pretty critical of Houston.

“After winning the semi-finals, you walk around downtown Houston, which is butt-ugly, [there’s] not much there,” Lamont said.

Chaz light-heartedly warned the governor about what he just said.

“You know that’s going to be tweeted and viral,” Chaz said.

He was right.

Folks in Texas didn’t take too kindly to that.

Houston mayor Sylvester Turner responded:

His office tweeted that it was disappointed in Lamont’s comments.

“We are a great city that hosted a fantastic March Madness Final Four,” the account posted.

“Which end was the governor looking from?” Turner himself added.

Lamont walked back his comment a bit on Thursday during a news conference that was on a separate topic.

“We had a ball in Houston during the NCAA Final Four,” Lamont said. “The people there were incredibly gracious and welcoming for us, and the basketball game was pretty darn good as well.”

Lamont said he loved Turner’s comments.

“He said ‘maybe the governor’s looking at the wrong end of a beautiful horse,’” Lamont explained. “I guess I resemble that comment. I want to say more importantly that nothing compares to the beauty of that amazing basketball championship on Monday night.”

The governor said he was joking around with Chaz and AJ.

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