Texas GOP county leaders are facing calls for resignation after publishing conspiracy theories and racist Facebook posts in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests.
Protests against police brutality and racism have continued across the country after the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police after one knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
However, in Texas, two lawmakers shared Facebook posts calling Floyd’s death a hoax, according to the Texas Tribune. They were among two other GOP lawmakers who posted conspiracies and racist remarks this month.
Cynthia Brehm, GOP chairwoman to Bexar County in San Antonio, questioned the validity of Floyd’s death in a now-deleted post.
A columnist for the San Antonia Express News took a screenshot of Brehm’s post before it was deleted and posted it to Twitter.
“I think there is at the very least the ‘possibility’, that this was a filmed public execution of a black man by a white cop, with the purpose of creating racial tensions,” Brehm wrote, according to the screenshot.
A very similar post also appears on GOP Chairman Jim Kaelin’s Facebook page. Kaelin is the chairman for Nueces County in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Meanwhile, Sue Piner—GOP chair for Comal County in New Braunfels— posted an image accusing George Soros, a prominent Democrat donor, of financing police violence.
“I pay white cops to murder black people. And then I pay black people to riot because race wars keep the sheep in line,” the now-deleted post said.
GOP Chairman-Elect in Harris County Keith Nielsen also posted a racist image of a Martin Luther King Jr. quote with a banana, a racist-trope. The post has been deleted along with his alleged apology for the original, racist post.
The posts were condemned by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). Abbott’s office did not immediately responded to a request for comment to the Daily Dot.
“These comments are disgusting and have no place in the Republican Party or in public discourse,” an Abbott spokesman told the Texas Tribune.
Abbot’s office has only asked Brehm and Kaelin to step down according to the Tribune.
Other members of the Texas GOP are scrambling to condemn their fellow lawmakers. Republican Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush said all four chairmen should step down.
“I have said it before and I will say it again now: the GOP must not tolerate racism. Of any kind. At any time. The appalling behavior by the four GOP County leaders must not stand. I urge them to do the honorable thing and step aside now,” Bush tweeted.
But Brehm isn’t budging despite party pressure.
“They do a lot of things, too, that I don’t agree with but I don’t ask for their resignation,” she told Spectrum News in reference to her own party.
So far, all four GOP chairmen have yet to resign.
You can read all of the Texas Tribune report here.
Update 2:15pm CT, June 5: On Friday morning, the Tribune found that GOP chairman Lee Lester, from Harrison County in East Texas, also posted the same conspiracy as Brehm and Kaelin.
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