Posted on 10/01/2018 8:42:07 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
A staffer working on Florida gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum's (D) campaign was dismissed after a series of offensive social media posts surfaced over the weekend.
Screenshots of since-deleted tweets from Manny Orozco-Ballestas, a youth director for the campaign, were published by conservative blogger Jacob Engels.
The tweets, which date as far back as 2012, included several in which Orozco-Ballestas degraded women and one in which he responded to a tweet from President Trump by saying "you need to be executed."
The Tampa Bay Times reported on Sunday that Orozco-Ballestas was fired because of the language used in his social media posts.
"The type of language this young man used on social media before his employment with our campaign is unacceptable and he will no longer be working with the campaign," campaign spokesperson Joshua Karp told the newspaper in a statement.
The Times noted that the campaign did not specify when Orozco-Ballestas was fired. As of Saturday morning, his Twitter account had been disabled, according to the newspaper.
"I took social media for granted when I was younger and I am now facing the consequences," Orozco-Ballestas, 24, wrote in a statement to The Times. "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."
The Times noted that Orozco-Ballestas was hired just two weeks ago to lead the Gillum's campaign's youth outreach. He had drawn scrutiny from Florida's state Republican Party last week after he was pictured wearing a T-shirt that that featured the 2016 U.S. electoral map and a label calling red states "Dumbf---istan."
“It is unbelievable to me that Andrew Gillum would not only employ, but promote on social media, a person who calls voters ‘dumb f-cks’ for electing Republicans," Florida GOP Chairman Blaise Ingoglia said in a statement, referencing an image the staffer posted on his Instagram.
It had been reported that Orozco-Ballestas was disciplined over the shirt.
Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, is running against Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) in the Florida governor's race. Recent polls show Gillum with a slight lead over DeSantis.
An average of polling for the Florida governor's race produced by RealClearPolitics shows Gillum up by 4.5 points.
But something somebody may have done 36 years ago is?
Ping.
DeSantis needs to get off his ass and put this guy away. Gollum and his supporters are very, very dangerous.
“...What I tweeted as an immature student many years ago...”
You are only 24 years old now, you twit...”Many years ago” you weren’t even born...
No kidding! Gollum is putting out well produced ads one after the other... He’s clearly an unapologetic commie, but the ads are forceful and numerous. DeSantis has put out maybe two ads, one was telling his kids they are republicans, and the other was about Little League baseball. You had to watch it twice to get a drift the it was a political ad.
I still think Gollum will lose in FL, but it won’t be because DeSantis has better ads.
The very possibility Floridians could actually elect that communist Gillum as Governor is stunning. What in the hell are those people smoking down there???
A lot of them are transplanted New Yorkers. They’re ruined their own state for all time, and are not working on ruining others.
and are not working on ruining others.
—
Should be NOW working! I hate it when a typo ends up saying the opposite of what one intends!
He was dismissed for not calling for torture before execution.
Not elected yet and probably no worse than natham.
Dismissed because of the optics not his character or his message.
“When I was younger” 2-3 years ago. What a crock.
This is the left.
The (s)Hill: That’s awful!
But remember a poll says his ex-boss is ahead
in the race!
...”A lot of them are transplanted New Yorkers. They’re ruined their own state for all time, and are not working on ruining others.”...
Yes. NYC immigrants are ruining FL.
Where are your ads .
Where are the Radio interviews.
Ron needs more face time .
I couldn't figure out the point of a few Gillum ads .
Bizzare .
DeSantis is a victim of the media. They really don’t want him to beat Gillum. Every time he opens his mouth, they claim he’s a racist. They are looking for anything that they can claim shows he’s a racist. Someone who gives him money, for example, is a racist... So that means DeSantis is a racist. It’s always about racism because his opponent is black. Never about the issues, because Gillum loses on all the issues.
Yes, he does. It’s perplexing as to why he’s not taking the running more seriously.
And once early voting starts it’ll be too late to regain the momentum.
A completely dishonest, hypocritical action by Gillum. I bet this staffer will continue to work for him, and I bet this staffer will continue to be paid, like the ones the DNC “fired” in 2006 after they illegally obtained Michael Steele’s credit records. they got “fired” but were paid for five months.
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