This post has been updated.
New Hampshire state Rep. Kyle Tasker (R) posted a joke about domestic violence to Facebook on Monday while defending a fellow lawmaker’s comments about abusive relationships, according to William Tucker’s New Hampshire politics blog, Miscellany: Blue.
Tasker posted a graphic joke about domestic violence that read, “50,000 battered women and I still eat mine plain!”
Tasker has since deleted the joke from Facebook, but Tucker sent TPM a screenshot of the post:
The Huffington Post has a screenshot taken by Tucker with the full image of the Facebook discussion, including Tasker’s post, here.
Rep. Mark Warden (R) was criticized for a comment he made last year during a hearing on a bill related to domestic violence laws.
“Some people could make the argument that a lot of people like being in abusive relationships,” Warden said, according to WMUR News. “It’s a love-hate relationship.”
The New Hampshire Republican party would not defend Warden, according to the Huffington Post. Tasker and others on Monday started to discuss the state GOP’s refusal to defend Warden on the Greater Nashua Tea Party’s Facebook page.
“Warden is so principled it offends people,” Tasker wrote on Facebook.
After a few other commenters jumped in, Tasker then posted the explicit joke about domestic abuse.
When one commenter said that Tasker’s joke was inappropriate, he replied, “People are making money off that but Mark’s getting the press for a trivial comment … Now if we went around wearing the T-shirt that wouldn’t go over well,” according to the Huffington Post. Tasker has since removed that comment.
This isn’t the first time the lawmaker has gotten attention for comments made on Facebook. In February, Tasker complained that his “name is attached to this turd,” after backing a bill on mental health courts.
Tasker did not respond to the Huffington Post’s request for comment.
The New Hampshire Republican Party has not responded to TPM’s request for comment.
Feature image via Tasker’s Facebook page
Screenshot via William Tucker
