A House candidate from Oregon is facing mounting criticism after he referred to First Lady Melania Trump with an obscene term on Twitter.
Mark Roberts, who describes himself as an “independent conservative” on his website, responded to a Tweet that was outlining how fewer staff members were working for the first lady compared to under Obama. His response included two distasteful hashtags.
“Did you know the First Lady works by the hour? #thinkdirty #hoebag,” Roberts wrote on Twitter, July 3o.
https://twitter.com/RobertsforCD2/status/1023977572315451392
His tirade continued on.
“I invite that hosebag to sue me,” he wrote in a subsequent post.
https://twitter.com/RobertsforCD2/status/1024008493022375937
As of August 1, the above posts were not deleted. In Oregon’s 2nd congressional district, Roberts will face incumbent Rep. Greg Walden, a Republican, and Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a Democrat.
The backlash following the candidate’s comments was swift. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. tagged the post to the CEO of Twitter, calling for Roberts to be removed entirely from the site.
“This attack on FLOTUS is disgraceful. Comments like these have no business on any platform,” McCarthy wrote on Twitter July 30.”This account should be banned ASAP.”
.@jack this attack on @FLOTUS is disgraceful. Comments like these have no business on any platform. This account should be banned ASAP. https://t.co/sIGO4ggeAM
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) July 31, 2018
Donald Trump Jr. the president’s son also responded and called out the social media platform for censorship.
Imagine if a conservative tweeted this. Imagine if anyone said this horrific statement about Michelle Obama. Their life would ruined and account deactivated. Twitter is becoming a platform for hate against conservatives @jack https://t.co/7Qr0TT1jjH
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 1, 2018
“Imagine if a conservative tweeted this” Trump Jr. wrote on July 31. “Imagine if anyone said this horrific statement about Michelle Obama. Their life would [be] ruined and account deactivated. Twitter is becoming a platform for hate against conservatives.”
It’s not the first time that Trump has been harassed online. In June, the first lady’s office notified the secret service after Hollywood actor Peter Fonda called for her son, Barron, to be kidnapped.
Roberts’s Twitter account has a history of crude posts. Last year, he called Republican Nikki Haley “very hot.” In another, he asked a Nutrisystem representative “are you as hot in person as you are in the nutrisystem commercial #legitquestion.”
Roberts did not respond to a request for comment.
