WASHINGTON — An aide to an Illinois Republican congressman has resigned after making disparaging social media comments about black people, a spokesman for the lawmaker said on Friday.
Benjamin Cole, press secretary to Rep. Aaron Schock, resigned Thursday, the spokesman said. Cole resigned after Facebook pictures and videos with written comments surfaced of him mocking African-Americans outside his Washington apartment building.
In a statement to the Peoria Journal Star newspaper, Schock said he was “extremely disappointed by the inexcusable and offensive online comments made by a member of my staff.”
The Facebook comments were first reported by the liberal website Think Progress on Thursday.