A Pittsburgh-area GOP official is stepping down after private Facebook posts in which she described National Football League players who knelt during the national anthem as “baboons” were made public.
The Beaver County Republican Committee accepted Carla Maloney’s resignation as secretary and an elected member on Friday, according to a post on its website. The Facebook comments, which include a complaint about “reverse racism,” according to the Beaver County (Pa.) Times, have drawn heightened attention as midterm elections draw closer and a new professional football season begins amid White House criticism of players kneeling to protest police brutality against black people.
“The views expressed in her posts are abhorrent and have no place in reasonable public discourse,” the committee said. “We denounce these comments in the strongest terms possible.”
Beaver County Committee Chairman Chip Kohser told the Times that Maloney may have made the comments after the Pittsburgh Steelers remained in their locker room while the anthem was performed before a September 2017 game in Chicago.
“Tired of these over paid ignorant blacks telling me what I should believe in. I will tell you what I believe in and that is our Flag the National Anthem and America period end of story,” she wrote in excerpts of the Facebook posts published by the news organization. “Let’s see how the baboons get paid when white people stop paying their salaries.”
Maloney, who said the posts were made public because of a family dispute on which she didn’t elaborate, expressed regret to the committee and anyone who saw her remarks in a resignation letter dated Friday.
“My posts and comments were disrespectful not only to the people that I love, but families across the country,” she wrote. “I know I am a better person than this and, as I step away from these public positions, I will work to show everyone who I truly am. From the bottom of my heart, I again apologize for my remarks, my poor taste and the problems they have caused.”
