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Minnesota Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan confirmed the official’s resignation in a statement on Tuesday. Earlier, she had repeated a lower ranking official’s assertion that the Wabasha County Republican Party’s Facebook page had been hacked — an assertion that she retracted on Tuesday evening.
“The Republican Party of Minnesota has learned the Wabasha County Facebook page was not hacked last night, as believed by the Wabasha County Chair,” Carnahan said in a statement Tuesday. “The offensive picture was unfortunately posted by a board member who has resigned effective immediately at the party’s request.”
She added that the state party as well as the county board “apologizes for this disappointing post,” which she also called “vitriolic.”
The post is now gone, and Carnahan asked the local chair to ask the person responsible for the post to resign, state party communications director Jack Tomczak told CNN. The individual who posted the image has not been publicly named.
It featured a black and white image of a Nazi officer and a man wearing a six-pointed Star of David — which those of the Jewish faith were required to wear as identification in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. The image was captioned, “Just put on the star and quit complaining, it’s not that hard” at the top of the image, and, “Just put on the mask and stop complaining” at the bottom.
Carnahan responded to the group Monday, confirming the image and stating that the county board thought it was posted via hack.
She added, “Our party does not support/condone divisive and harmful posts or language of this nature.”
On Saturday, Minnesota began requiring its citizens to wear masks in all indoor businesses in line with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s order.