Here’s Carl Paladino’s campaign manager Michael Caputo giving CapTon’s Kaitlyn Ross his take on last night’s Sagamore Smackdown.

The upshot: He believes Fred Dicker purposesly goaded the candidate into the near-fight, knowing full well Paladino was upset with The Post for trying to take pictures of the 10-year-old daughter he fathered out of wedlock.

“Fred came in after knowing that Carl was upset about that, and got right in his face,” Caputo said.

“It was a pretty aggressive exchange, and I believe Fred started it. But Carl is not very happy about anybody harassing his child, or his children, or his grandchildren. They were taking photographs of mail from her mailbox, and he’s very upset about that…The exchange, I think, was intentional on Fred Dicker’s part. I believe he was looking for that kind of a reaction because he heard Carl was upset. We don’t take kindly to it.”

Dicker said on TALK 1300 this morning that Kaitlyn’s cell phone video didn’t capture the start of his conversation with Paladino, which he insists began with him calmly questioning the candidate over his allegation that Andrew Cuomo stepped out on his ex-wife, Kerry Kennedy.

Caputo said Paladino learned of the efforts to take photos of his daughter while he was marching in the Columbus Day parade in Howard Beach, which may explain his outburst reported by Post columnist Andrea Peyser today.

Peyser’s first column on the topic of Paladino’s daughter didn’t mention his expletives and also said no one in Queens “gives a rat’s hump” how long he cheated on his wife with the mother of his out-of-wedlock child.

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