Rep. Aaron Schock’s senior adviser for policy and communications resigned Thursday over comments he previously posted to social media.
Benjamin Cole’s resignation came after ThinkProgress obtained and made public Thursday a series of posts from Cole’s personal Facebook in which he made racially charged comments.
“I am extremely disappointed by the inexcusable and offensive online comments made by a member of my staff,” Schock, an Illinois Republican, said in a statement to the Peoria Journal Star. “I would expect better from any member of my team. Upon learning about them I met with Mr. Cole and he offered his resignation which I have accepted.”
In the October 2013 posts, Cole likened black people to animals and called for gentrification of his neighborhood.
In another December 2013 post, Cole, a former Baptist pastor, described witnessing a shooting of “one of the hood rats on my street” by “another hood rat.”
The posts have since been removed.
