A Democrat dropped out of his race for the Minnesota legislature on Sunday after he tweeted that the Islamic State terror group is “made up of people doing what they think is best for their community.”
Dan Kimmel, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, posted the tweet on Saturday, the same day the French government blamed the terror groups for attacks that killed more than 100 people in Paris.
“ISIS isn’t necessarily evil,” Kimmel wrote. “It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though.”
Kimmel’s Twitter account has since been deleted, but the Star Tribune newspaper captured a screenshot of it beforehand:
By Sunday morning, Kimmel apologized for the tweet, and put a statement titled “Evil” on his campaign website. It said he was “folding up my campaign tent” and taking down his Facebook page and campaign site.
“I am very sorry for ‘spreading ick’ on other candidates and the DFL party,” according to the post. “I will do everything I can to help resolve the issue: most likely the best thing for me to do is shut up. The tweet was stupid. I’m sorry.”
Read his full response.
