Ok, I need everyone to brace themselves. You’re going to want to sit down for this and make sure you’re not currently operating any heavy machinery or in the middle of fixing your edges just right. The news I’m about to break is both shocking and virtually unheard of:
Republican leaders have recently been caught posting bigotry on Facebook.
In other news, the sky turns less blue when the weather is bad, but we’ll come back to that.
Two state Republican Party leaders in Delaware, New Castle County Republican Party Chairman Chris Rowe and Sussex County Vice-Chair Nelly Jordan faced backlash for online comments that their colleagues called homophobic and anti-Semitic.
I’ll start with Rowe, whose use of a homophobic slur caused his resignation at the request of party leaders, according to CNN.
It, apparently, all started when Rowe attempted to post a video of the Texas church shooting from last Sunday to beef up the old “only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” adage. The video kept getting deleted according to Blue Delaware, a pro-Democrat blog that captured screenshots of the exchange between Rowe and a notification that the video violated community standards. In response, Rowe writes, “F*ggots can not handle reality. Bad guy loses, FB pisses themselves.”
In response, the Delaware Republican Party released a statement on Thursday:
“His comment was offensive and did not reflect the values of respect and tolerance held dear by the Delaware Republican Party,” Jane Brady, chair of the party, said in the statement. “Ultimately, as a result, he lost the support of those he was to lead.”
Rowe originally defended his use of the slur in a post on the GOP of New Castle County’s Facebook page, calling it “locker room talk between 2 men.”
“I told him I have been using that word since before it ever meant what people are offended by today,” the post reads. “In this context I used it for it’s [sic] impact & it was between close friends.”
“Knowing that I am not a Homophobe nor have an ounce of bigotry in my blood, he understood and left it at that,” the post continues. “Hell, I have been instrumental in bringing gay candidates into this upcoming election for the GOP.”
He later walked all that weak justification nonsense back in a phone interview with WHYY.
“I just got frustrated and used an improper word,’’ Rowe said. “I made a mistake. God doesn’t create perfect people and I can verify that because I ain’t one.” He continued, “If the use of this word in any manner, injured or upset or really hit hard at the emotions of an individual and hurt them, really hurt them inside, I’m heartfully sorry.’’
Next up, we have Nelly Jordan, who was criticized for an anti-Semitic Facebook post in which she denounced President Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings by essentially calling it fake news by fake Jews. Or as she put it, Jews “in name only,” the Delaware News Journal reported.
“What amazes me the most in these theatrical Congress hearings, is to see how many Jews ‘In Name Only’ lend themselves to be in the hoaks of the pure made up story of Impeachment that the Democrats have woven as spiders catching flies and bugs.” Jordan says, while clearly failing at spelling “hoax” correctly. “These jews have been enrolled to come and testify, to come and interrogate and to be involved in anything that the Democrats enlist them to do to try to look credible to the people of this country.”
It’s not clear yet what Jordan’s future with the party is, as Jordan was elected to her post by the Sussex County GOP Executive Committee, rather than appointed, so she would either have to resign on her own or go through a process that would remove her, according to Brady. Jordan also has yet to issue an apology or any other statement in response to the backlash.
So there you have it, folks: shocking and completely unanticipated news of GOP leaders proving themselves to be bigots. Now, back to the weather.