A racist post shared by the Sheridan County Repulican Party on Facebook was up for about 35 minutes Tuesday before it was deleted, the party’s chairman said, adding that it crossed a line.
The county party shared a post made by someone else featuring a photo of former President Donald Trump during a Sunday campaign event working at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s restaurant.
Under the photo was a racial slur and a number of stereotypes comparing Trump to African Americans. The vulgar slur was crossed out from the post that the Sheridan GOP shared.
The Sheridan GOP commented, “While not really a thing in Wyoming, you must admit this is rather funny.”
‘Not In Good Taste’
Bryan Miller, chairman of the Sheridan GOP, said the post was regrettable, and that he ordered it to be taken down as soon as he found out about it.
He said it was only up for about 35 minutes, adding that “it was not in good taste."
Sheridan resident Jeff Wallack, who is generally supportive of the county party’s leadership, said the post was clearly an error in judgment and not representative of any Republican in Wyoming or anywhere else.
“Whomever published this must apologize and explain and potentially lose access to future publishing rights here,” Wallack said.
Wallack also speculated that it could have been made by someone who dislikes Trump or is a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris, but Miller said it was a member of the county party’s communications team.
Miller would not disclose which team member made the post out of concern of retaliation.
“We have experience with people being doxxed and we wouldn’t want to put them through that,” he said.
This post shared by the Sheridan County Republican Party on its Facebook page was deleted after about 35 minutes. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Free Speech?
Miller said he only found out about the post when contacted by the media and that nobody from the general public had reached out to him with concerns.
He believes that those in the media that contacted him about the post are blowing it out of proportion, which he sees as a testament to the state of free speech in America.
“There are far too many people who don’t have a sense of humor,” he said. “Political satire has been out there for eons.”
Miller also added that the county party intentionally makes and shares posts that push the envelope in order to get greater engagement on social media.
Sheridan resident Gail Symons, a frequent critic of her county party, said the post wasn’t out of the ordinary for the organization.
“My reaction is that while it’s more egregiously disgusting than most of the things they post, it’s certainly not outside the board’s blog posts made on the Sheridan GOP website, which do not reflect the views of Sheridan or Wyoming values at all,” she said.
Symons lost her Republican primary election this August by a somewhat competitive margin.
The race between Trump and Harris has become particularly heated with exactly two weeks to go before the Nov. 5 Election Day. Supporters of both candidates are making charged comments about the opposition on social media and other venues with increasing frequency.
Some in the media accused Trump of making a racist trope about Harris on Tuesday when he called her “lazy” for taking a day off the campaign.
Certain comedians have also complained that they don’t feel comfortable making jokes about the election because of “cancel culture” and political correctness.
“It washes out free speech is what it’s doing, which I don’t appreciate,” Miller said.
Contact Leo Wolfson at leo@cowboystatedaily.com
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
