Rep. Brian Mast is apologizing over social media posts from 2009 and 2010 in which the Florida Republican made inappropriate comments about underage girls and rape.
“A decade ago when I was in the Army, and following my injury, I made disgusting and inappropriate jokes that I am embarrassed to have associated with my name today,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
“I am sorry about that part of who I was, and I strive every day to be a better example for my kids,” he added.
The posts include Mast commenting in 2009, “im so proud of you… i hope you hook up with at least fifteen 15 year olds over there…. its legel there right.”
The comment was posted on a photo his current campaign manager, Rocco LeDonni, took in South Africa and posted on Facebook in 2009, the South Florida Sun Sentinel first reported.
In a 2011 Facebook post, LeDonni said, “Anyone have any good pick up lines for this weekend considering according to the crazy christian radio guy the world may end on sunday?” and Mast replied, “How about don’t turn this rape into a murder.”
Mast, who lost both legs and a finger while serving in Afghanistan in 2010, called the comments “inappropriate jokes” that he regrets in his apology.
One source familiar with Mast’s condition at the time said that while Mast was recovering at Walter Reed hospital between 2010 and 2012, the Florida Republican, who is now 40 years old, underwent multiple surgeries and was prescribed heavy medications that could have factored into his posts.
“As a result, he was regularly on morphine, oxycodone, sleep sedatives, anti-inflammatories and anti-depressants. I bring this up only to say that his memories of this time in his life are inconsistent. His recovery, and the similarly timed birth of his first child, was a life-changing event for him both personally and professionally,” the source said.
“He lost the occupation he had intended to do for the rest of his life as a bomb technician, re-learned basic motor functions, gained the responsibility of his first little boy, and as a result of all the adversity, was a much different person after his recovery than he was before it,” the source added.
Jacob Perry, a former Mast campaign consultant, denounced the congressman following the emergence of the social media posts.
“These comments are vile, disgusting and inexcusable and it makes me regret my prior association with anyone who would speak about young women in such a way. There are no excuses and you can’t use your injuries as a shield this time,” he wrote in a Facebook post obtained by The Hill.