Republican aide sacked ‘within minutes’ after anti-gay sexist Snapchat messages
A Republican lawmaker has dismissed his aide after he posted sexist messages to Snapchat complaining about a sexual harassment training course.
Colorado state Senator Jim Smallwood confirmed he had fired his legislative aide Andrew Knarr over the incident.
Knarr had come under fire for messages he posted to Snapchat complaining about a sexual harassment course.
He wrote: “Mandatory 2 hour sexual harassment training. And they aren’t even going to show me the proper way to grab a woman’s ass… This is f**king gay”.
Senator Smallwood said he decided to fire the aide “within minutes” after he was alerted to the messages.
According to Colorado Politics, he said in a statement: “Today screenshots of my legislative aide’s Snapchat account were shown to me for the first time, and within minutes I made the decision to dismiss Andrew Knarr.
“Andrew’s actions were unacceptable and unbecoming of an employee of the Colorado State Senate, and I hope he takes the time to reflect and build upon his experience in his future endeavours.”
Senate President Kevin Grantham added: “Andrew Knarr was Sen. Smallwood’s employee and as his supervisor it was the senator’s sole decision to fire him. We fully support Senator Smallwood in this choice.”
Knarr admitted he was “probably done” in politics after the incident, but told the outlet the scandal was “textbook retaliation by Democrats” after allegations of sexual harassment were levelled against a Democratic state Senator.
Colorado Politics has named Knarr as a source of their story on allegations.
Elsewhere this week an anti-gay Republican fired an aide after police found him in the middle of a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old boy.
Nick Provenzano, 56, served as deputy district director to Randy Hultgren, a Republican congressman for Illinois who has spoken against same-sex marriage.
But the aide was fired this week after a police officer had found him shirtless with a teenage boy he met on Grindr, in an SUV with its lights off, parked on a dead-end road.
The deputy district director told the officer that he and the teenager – who was fully clothed – were simply “hanging out” and “talking about life.”
When the officer asked why he was shirtless, Provenzano said he had removed his top because it was hot.
The teenager told police that he had engaged in sexual contact in the car with Provenzano, adding that he had “willingly consented” to it after meeting the aide on Grindr.
