SARASOTA, FL — The Sarasota Democratic Party has apologized for a social media post made following a suspected assassination attempt on President Donald Trump during Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner at a Washington, D.C. hotel, reports said.
The Facebook post read, “well, that sucks,” included a laughing emoji and was tagged as, “feeling disappointed.”
A volunteer posted the statement Saturday night, the party’s chair, David Dean, told WFLA.
Dean later removed the post, which, he said, the volunteer claims wasn’t in reference to the failed assassination attempt.
“He did put a statement that he was referring to something else. But I am honestly not sure. As soon as we were made aware of it, we took it down,” Dean said.
In a statement, the Republican Party of Sarasota slammed Democrats nationwide for “calling President Trump a Nazi, fascist, authoritarian, dictator who is destroying the nation,” adding that this rhetoric “is bound to bring out the crazies.”
Local Republicans went on to specifically call out the local Democratic party.
“Horrifically and disgracefully, the Sarasota County Democratic Party went even further, posting on their Facebook page a message mocking the failed assassination attempt,” the Republican party said. “Sarasota Democrats owe this community an apology. Just deleting a post in hopes no one noticed just doesn’t cut it. A lot of people noticed. Leadership should issue an apology to the Sarasota community”
Dean apologized for the post and took responsibility for it.
“As the face of the party, I’m responsible for our communications, and I wanted to apologize to people that happened,” he told ABC 7. “I’ll do my very best to make sure we don’t have a repeat of this in the future.”
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