‘Nothing More Than Political Satire’
The Republican Party of Riverside County, California on Wednesday posted two tweets with an image of a bloodied, masked hangman with a side ax standing on a gallows with three empty nooses, and the caption, “I’m Ready for Hillary,” a slogan of the Clinton campaign.
“That meme is nothing more than political satire,” Riverside County GOP Chairman Scott Mann told a local California newspaper, The Press Enterprise. “It simply expresses how Ms. Clinton seemingly has gotten away with every scandal and political flip-flop in her public life – from classified e-mail and Benghazi to her changing positions on health care, TPP, NAFTA, gay marriage, etc.”Â
“We will extend benefit of the doubt if even one person was genuinely offended and remove the tweet,” Mann added, blaming the tweet on a volunteer, the only other person with access to the organization’s social media account. “Beyond that, we trust the discernment of citizens to view it for what it is – political satire.”
Curiously, Mann in the same email also made this contradictory statement, possibly the one he assumed the paper would use:
“I was made aware of derogatory Tweet this afternoon toward Secretary Clinton when the Press-Enterprise called me for comment. I was horrified and had the Tweet taken down immediately. While some may think it was political satire, it clearly has no place in American political dialogue.â€
“As Chairman of the Republican Party of Riverside County, I apologize to everyone and anyone who was offended by it. I have taken steps to ensure that the individual who posted the Tweet no longer has access and I can assure you the person responsible will be held accountable.â€
Press Enterprise reporter Jeff Horseman, who broke the story and wrote the article exposing the offensive tweet, posted the Riverside County GOP’s offensive meme to Twitter (above). He notes the two “tweets had been removed from the GOP account as of 2 p.m. Wednesday.”
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Image by Jeff Horseman/Twitter