Republican official resigns after racist Facebook post

TuAnh Dam
NFL players have been criticized for kneeling and for staying in the locker room during the national anthem.
NFL players have been criticized for kneeling and for staying in the locker room during the national anthem.

A Republican official has resigned a year after writing several racist Facebook posts targeting kneeling NFL players.

Carla Maloney was the Secretary of the Republican Committee of Beaver County in Pennsylvania when she criticized African American NFL players, calling them “baboons” and “over paid ignorant blacks”.

A Beaver Country Republican Committee official confirmed to the Beaver County Times that Maloney originally published the posts under the name Carla Belich Fueller before changing her name in 2015

In Maloney’s now-deleted post, she said that she was “tired of these over paid ignorant blacks telling me what I should believe in. I will tell you what I believe in and that is our Flag the National Anthem and America period end of story.”

She continued by stating that players should return to Africa if they did not like American values.

An hour after the initial post, Maloney said that she believed that another civil war was pending and that the US was in the midst of reverse racism.

Chip Kohser, chairman of the GOP committee in Beaver Committee, told the Beaver County Times that he believes Maloney likely wrote her racist Facebook post after several Pittsburgh Steelers players stayed in the locker room instead of going out onto the field during the National Anthem during a September game last year.

NFL players began kneeling during the national anthem to <span>protest police brutality and racial injustice, but have been criticized for disrespecting the flag and American veterans.</span>
NFL players began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice, but have been criticized for disrespecting the flag and American veterans.

Maloney called the NFL players “baboons” multiple times after a commenter wrote “GO STEELERS”.

“Steelers are now just as bad as the rest of the over paid baboons. You respect your flag, country and our national anthem,” Maloney wrote in the comments. “How many men and women have lost limbs or died to protect this country and you baboons want respect.”

Kohser told the BeaverCountian.com that Maloney’s statements were not representative of the Republican party or Beaver County as a whole.

The Beaver County Republican Committee shared her resignation letter and their own additional statement that “the views expressed in her posts are abhorrent and have no place in reasonable public discourse. We denounce these comments in the strongest terms possible.”

In her resignation letter, Maloney confirmed that she wrote the original Facebook posts and apologized for her “distasteful, inappropriate and insensitive social media posts.”

“Those that know me know that I come from a diverse family that represents modern America,” Maloney said. “I know I am a better person than this and, as I step away from these public positions…From the bottom of my heart, I again apologize for my remarks, my poor taste, and the problems they have caused.”