NJ college censures trustee over posts targeting ‘the squad’

The vice chairman of a community college in New Jersey was censured and stripped of his title over offensive memes targeting four minority congresswomen that he shared on the local Republican Party’s official Twitter account, NJ.com reports.

The Sussex County Community College Board of Trustees voted 7-2 on Tuesday to remove Jerry Scanlan as vice chairman and adopt a solution that “condemns and disavows” his retweets attacking Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ilhan Omar (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.).

He will remain on the board until his second, four-year term ends on Oct. 31.{mosads}

“When people are on boards, they develop relationships and friendships and that’s natural, but at no time should those relationships and friendships prevent the board from taking action if the individual engages in behavior that is harmful to the organization,” trustee Howard Burnell said about voting in favor of the resolution.

Scanlan, who has also chaired the Sussex County Republican Party since 2015, took responsibility for the posts that appeared last month on the @SussexCountyGOP Twitter account.

One meme showed a photo of President Trump and the congresswomen that read “I’m not mentioning any names, but there sure are some stupid b—–s out there.”

The outlet noted that other posts described the progressive lawmakers as the “Wh—s of Babble-on” and “The Four Horsemen of Hate.”

NJ.com noted that the meme that appears to have drawn the most scrutiny read “America must eradicate Islam from every town, city, county and state in our homeland!”

The memes coincided with the president launching a series of widely condemned attacks on the four nonwhite Democrats, telling them to “go back” to where they came from. 

All of them are U.S. citizens and only Omar was born in another country. Omar and Tlaib made history during the November 2018 midterm elections when they became the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

Scanlan initially issued a written apology for the images he shared and called it “human errors of judgment,” NJ.com reported.

However, he issued a five-page statement before Tuesday’s meeting that accused his colleagues on the board of rushing to judgment “without fundamental fairness” and without a “full investigation.”

“While I do not disagree that the Sussex County Community College Board of Trustees has a right and duty to conduct a full and fair investigation, what is being conducted is ‘Cowboy Justice’: Hang’em first and try’em later,’” Scanlan said in the statement obtained by the outlet from his attorney.

He reportedly no longer operates the Sussex GOP Twitter page and the party asked a local pastor to review all of the content on the social media platforms, NJ.com reported.