Georgia state Rep. Erica Thomas walked back her walk back about being verbally attacked by a “white man” in a grocery store after discovering the man was a fellow Democrat of Cuban ancestry.
But the story just got a lot messier for Thomas, who is so entrenched in the belief that she is a victim that she doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone.
The Democrat now faces calls for her resignation after a tweet was uncovered of her expressing sympathy for Nikolas Cruz, the former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student who killed 17 people at the Parkland, Fla., school in Feb. 2018. More than a dozen others were wounded.
“My heart goes out to Nikolas Cruz!! Some don’t know how to cope with being an orphan. I thank God everyday for getting me through the system in one piece,” the lawmaker tweeted.
Thomas included the hashtags: #FloridaShooting #mentalhealth #PrayforDouglas #prayfornik
The African-American lawmaker found herself in the news cycle after posting an emotional Facebook Live video claiming a white man, later identified as Eric Sparkes, told her to “go back to where you came from.”
The claim took on added emphasis in the media coming on the heels of President Trump’s comments directed at the “squad” of four radical Democrats in Congress — in fact, Thomas referenced Trump in the video as she denounced alleged “hate.”
But Sparkes confronted her on camera as she was about to be interviewed by a local news affiliate in front of the grocery store where the incident took place and he denied the claim, saying he called Thomas a “lazy b*tch” because she had too many items in an express lane.
“This woman, Ms. Thomas, is playing the victim for political purposes because she is a state legislator,” Sparkes said.
“I’m a Democrat and will vote Democrat for the rest of my life, so call me whatever you want to believe,” he continued. “For her political purposes, make it black, white, brown, whatever. It is untrue.”
Thomas would then walk back her claim somewhat, admitting that Sparkes may not have said go back where you came from — only to later double down on the claim.
“He said, ‘go back,’ you know, those types of words,” she said the day he denied the claim. “I don’t wanna say he said ‘go back to your country,’ or ‘go back to where you came from,’ but he was making those types of references, is what I remember.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson took note of how the media, in this case the New York Times, played what was essentially a trivial dispute between two people, making it a national story.
“Everything — every story has to be about Trump,” guest panelist Robby Soave said. “Somehow, it’s about racism and Trump.”
In the end, neither party comes out smelling like roses, as both leave a sour taste in people’s mouths.
However, publicly expressing sympathy for a mass murderer is a whole other matter.
The tweet, which has since been deleted, caught the attention of Ryan Petty, the father of Alaina Petty, one of the students killed last year by Cruz. Hunter Pollack, whose lost his sister, Meadow Pollack, died that day, retweeted Petty’s post.
Erica Thomas has proven herself to not just be tone deaf and out-of-touch, but also a liar. Let's hope her days in office are over. https://t.co/p9hASaUyAe
— Christian Ziegler 🇺🇸 (@ChrisMZiegler) July 23, 2019
The calls to step down are pouring in, but more so for driving racial animosity — the news of Thomas supporting a mass murderer is certainly not going to help matter.
Georgia Republican lawmaker calls on @itsericathomas to resign #gapol https://t.co/qTcpWOezAk
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) July 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1153089611763257344?s=20
As a native Georgian, I am disgusted by GA State Rep. @itsericathomas shameful distortion of the truth on yesterday in which she sought nothing more than to plant the seeds of division.
She should immediately resign her office and go back where she came from – Austell, GA.
— CJ Pearson (@thecjpearson) July 21, 2019
https://twitter.com/TAG_Hanlon/status/1152984186468220933?s=20
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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