A staffer on Andrew Gillum’s campaign for Florida governor has been fired after tweets that said President Donald Trump needs “to be executed” resurfaced over the weekend, The Tampa Bay Times reports.
Manny Orozco-Ballestas, 24, was dismissed as the Democratic candidate’s youth director after Infowars blogger Jacob Engels dug up some of the staffer’s tweets from 2012 and 2013. In one, Orozco-Ballestas responded to Trump saying, “you need to be executed.” In another, he criticizes obese people for uploading pictures of their food to social media. And in a recent Instagram post, shared a picture of himself wearing a sweater with a map of the United States, with states that voted for Trump labeled “Dumb----istan.”
"I took social media for granted when I was younger and I am now facing the consequences," Orozco-Ballestas wrote in a statement to the newspaper. "I'm so sorry to all those I let down, especially Mayor Gillum and my team. What I tweeted as an immature student many years ago is not a reflection of the man I am today."
Republican Party of Florida Chairman Blaise Ingoglia said in a statement that "It is hypocritical for Gillum to endorse the same kind of hateful, intolerant speech that he likes to denounce."
Gillum spokeswoman Carlie Waibel said that the Democrat’s campaign will not "be lectured about words by the Party of Trump… The anti-Trump shirt he wore before he was hired wasn't funny or in any way related to our campaign and we've addressed that with him."
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