Name: Abbott calls for Bexar County GOP chair to resign for spreading George Floyd conspiracy theory
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Abbott calls for Bexar County GOP chair to resign for spreading George Floyd conspiracy theory

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Jonathan TiloveView CommentsGov. Greg Abbott on Thursday called on Bexar County Republican Party Chair Cynthia Brehm to resign for using her Facebook page to spread a conspiracy theory claiming that the death of George Floyd was staged to damage President Donald Trump with black voters.“These comments are disgusting and have no place in the Republican Party or in public discourse,” said John Wittman, the governor’s communications director. “Cynthia Brehm should immediately resign her position as chair of the Bexar County Republican Party.”U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a San Antonian, seconded the governor’s call, as did U.S. Ted Cruz and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, joining other Republicans in rapidly denouncing Brehm, who made headlines last week when she used a press conference in front of San Antonio City Hall to suggest that the coronavirus was a Democratic hoax.Texas Republican Party Chairman James Dickey said in a statement that he had personally asked Brehm to step down.U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Hays County, whose district stretches into Bexar County, and Matt Mackowiak, chairman of the Travis County Republican Party, called on Brehm to quit Wednesday evening after Gilbert Garcia, a columnist with the San Antonio Express-News, tweeted a screenshot from Brehm’s post earlier in the day delving into the possibility that Floyd’s death was staged. The post was later deleted.Floyd, 46, was killed on Memorial Day as a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee for more than eight minutes against the back of Floyd’s neck as he lay handcuffed on the street, struggling for breath and begging for his life.The content of the Facebook post was not original to Brehm and was the subject of a published last Friday, which reported that the post had been “flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed,” and that it had been “shared thousands of times and copy-pasted by other users.““There is no evidence to back it up,” PolitiFact reported.Within hours of the governor calling on Brehm to resign, the Caller Times that Abbott was also calling on Jim Kaelin, the Republican Party chair and former longtime sheriff in Nueces County, to resign his party post after he also shared, since May 29, on his Facebook page a variation of the same post.“This article was sent to me by a state police investigator,” wrote in introducing the post on his Facebook page “I thought I would share it with you for your consideration.”It has 1,400 shares.The post as it appeared on Brehm’s page was prefaced: “Tell me what you think.”Asking if Floyd’s death was a “staged event,” the post said an event like this was entirely predictable “considering the rising approval level of President Trump in the black community.”“I think that 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 and driving a wedge in the growing group of anti deep state sentiment from common people, that have been already been psychologically traumatized by COVID 19 fears,” the post read.Summer Wise, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee who lives near Lake Travis, criticized the post.“Propagating speculation intended to diminish the harsh events which led to George Floyd's death is something leaders should decry, not engage in,” Wise said Thursday on Facebook. “I condemn the statements made by Cynthia Brehm and urge her to liberate Bexar County from her toxic administration.”At her May 22 City Hall press conference, Brehm had this to say about the coronavirus: “Why is this happening today? And I'll tell you why: All of this has been promulgated by the Democrats to undo all the good President Trump has done for our country — and they are worried. So, take off your masks, exercise your constitutional rights. Stand up, speak up and vote Republican.”Brehm presents Texas Republicans with very much the same dilemma they faced in March 2016 when Robert Morrow, a conspiracy theorist of a different ilk, defeated incumbent Travis County Republican Party Chairman James Dickey in the state Republican primary.In the months that followed, Morrow, to considerable national notice, presided over a resistant Travis County party while wearing a jester’s hat. He ultimately relinquished the chair about five months later when he launched a write-in campaign for president.Dickey then regained the chairmanship and was soon elected Texas Republican Party chair, a post he must defend at the party’s state convention in July. Mackowiak succeeded Dickey as Travis County chair.Morrow continues to bedevil Texas Republicans. In this year’s Republican primary in March, he finished first in the race for an open seat on the State Board of Education and is in a July runoff with Lani Popp, who has been endorsed by all the other Republicans on the state board, who fear an embarrassment akin to that felt by Travis County Republicans four years ago if Morrow were to prevail.Reached Thursday in Austin, Morrow said he wasn’t up on the latest developments with Brehm.“I can’t follow every crazy Republican in Texas. It’s a hard job,” Morrow said.“That’s what’s so funny,” Morrow said. “These Republicans are in such a snit about the woman down in San Antonio, or even me running for State Board of Education, but there’s the king of crazy in the White House, and they do nothing but enable him.“How about he resign,” Morrow said.As to Brehm’s fate, Morrow said, “Well isn’t it obvious? Let the voters decide.”Brehm also faces a primary runoff to keep her party job in Bexar County. In a tweet Wednesday, Mackowiak called on Republicans to defeat Brehm by voting for John Austin in the July 14 runoff for chair.In the March 3 primary, Brehm received 33% of the vote to 31% for Austin.In a statement Thursday, Austin said he was running for the party position “to restore truth, honor, dignity and common sense to a once proud party.”“It is time to come together as a people to help our city, state and nation to heal. Now it is time for our words and actions to bring us together and not tear us apart,” Austin said.In her online campaign biography, Brehm described herself as “a Christian, a retired Army wife, a grandmother, a community activist, and a public servant.”According to the bio, she is a descendant of Canary Islanders who settled San Antonio in 1731, and her “ten-times grandfather, Juan Leal Goraz, was the first mayor of San Antonio.”Brehm did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday, and on Thursday her voicemail box was full.View Comments

Jonathan TiloveView CommentsGov. Greg Abbott on Thursday called on Bexar County Republican Party Chair Cynthia Brehm to resign for using her Facebook page to spread a conspiracy theory claiming that the death of George Floyd was staged to damage President Donald Trump with black voters.“These comments are disgusting and have no place in the Republican Party or in public discourse,” said John Wittman, the governor’s communications director. “Cynthia Brehm should immediately resign her position as chair of the Bexar County Republican Party.”U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a San Antonian, seconded the...

Abbott calls for Bexar County GOP chair to resign for spreading George Floyd conspiracy theory

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