A Minnesota Republican official on deleted tweets in which he responded to a Democrat mourning the death of actor Robin Williams in a strangely political way.
Ellen Anderson, director of digital media and social organizing for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, published a tweet Monday night commemorating Williams.
My cat’s nickname is Nanu Nanu. The world is lucky Robin Williams was able to share his genius with so many.
— Ellen C. Anderson (@ellencanderson) August 11, 2014
Chris Fields, the deputy chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, responded to her tweet with a political comment promoting a GOP candidate, according to the Huffington Post.
“How very 80’s. Want an economy like we had in the 80’s under Reagan…Vote @Jeff4Gov tomorrow in the primary,” he wrote in a tweet to Anderson.
After initial negative reaction on Twitter, Field defended his response in a second tweet:
“It’s curious to me why ppl mourn the loss of celebrities but ignore the misery everyday ppl live with as policies crush hope and opportunity,” he said.
Fields has now removed his tweets, but Buzzfeed captured screenshots of his replies.
Jeff Johnson, the GOP gubernatorial candidate plugged by Fields denounced the Republican officials decision to use Williams death to discuss politics.
The Tweets last night mixing Robin Williams’ death w/politics were inappropriate & wrong. America will dearly miss him
— Johnson for Governor (@Jeff4Gov) August 12, 2014
Actor and comedian Robin Williams died Monday at age 63 in an apparent suicide.
Mr. Fields, how wonderfully insensitive of you. You can make fun of people who are honestly feeling a sense of loss in the moment and chide them for being shallow. Somehow your response doesn’t convince me you have any empathy or compassion for anyone but yourself, much less changing Republican policies which are crushing all our hopes and opportunities. Shame on you.
These sort of clueless, obnoxious people have no business in politics. But without them, who would the GOP ever run?
I wonder when Ronald Reagan died if this guy felt any sadness? And, no, I don’t want to go back to the economy of the '80s. The only thing that propped up Reagan’s economy was the massive government spending and the enormous adding to our national debt.
Republicans never miss an opportunity to be insensitive assholes.
I liked it lots that another republican, former Republican house communications staffer Kevin Watterson, responded to him on Twitter and told him to “Shut the fuck up.”
When Fields whined some more and told him to watch his mouth, Watterson replied:
“You are an officer of the state party and making an ass of all of us,” Watterson said. “Don’t tell me to watch my mouth.”
Dog knows the republicans don’t need any more help making asses of themselves on a daily basis.