PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pennsylvania man who was fired after attending the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, says he is neither a white supremacist nor a fascist.
Michael Beatty, 29, described himself to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as a Libertarian and nationalist and said he attended the rally because he identifies with those aspects of right-wing politics.
He declined to comment on social media posts he allegedly created that an anarchist website contends indicate he’s a “white supremacist and self-declared fascist.”
The website itsgoingdown.org posted screenshots Wednesday that it claimed were images from the Charlottesville rally taken from Beatty’s Instagram page. The site also included posts about Nazism that it claimed were from Beatty’s Facebook page.
Beatty was fired from his job Saturday at Pittsburgh Custom Tile after owner Adam Ferkatch saw the social media posts. Ferkatch said he also received death threats and harassment about Beatty’s employment.
“This could lead to a lot of loss of business, and this is my livelihood,” Ferkatch said.
He said he came to the decision to fire Beatty after doing his own research.
Beatty said he liked his job but understands why Ferkatch fired him. He blamed “communist vermin” for postings of his personal information, such as where he worked.
Ferkatch said criticism died down after he announced on Facebook his decision to fire Beatty.
As nasty and hate filled as these people are, they’re also dumb as a stump.
“communist vermin” .
Now that would make a heckuva slogan for a hat or t-shirt. Kinda covfefe-ish…
And it doesn’t at all sound like the type of talk you would expect from a fascist.
Makes you wonder how many previous customers have a swastika motif hidden in their tile installations?
I heard somebody say Beatty and his ilk are “very fine people.”