KY Democrats call for apology after GOP senator posts racially charged comment
The Kentucky Democratic Party is calling on State Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, to apologize after he published a racially charged comment on his Facebook page in reference to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.
On a post yesterday, Wheeler referred to Northam as “Governor Ralph ‘Coon’ Northam,” then edited the post to read: “Governor Ralph ‘Coon-Man’ Northam.”
The Virginia governor, a Democrat, faced public outrage last year when he admitted to dressing up in blackface during a talent show in 1984, and for appearing in a photo in his medical school yearbook that showed a man dressed in blackface standing alongside another man dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.
Another yearbook, from the Virginia Military Institute, listed “Coonman” as one of Northam’s nicknames.
Wheeler’s post drew dozens of negative comments, including several calls for his resignation.
In a reply, Wheeler said the post was meant to call attention to Northam’s “disgusting, hypocritical and frankly anti-American behavior.”
“I find it ironic that folks are saying it (is) racist to draw attention to an elected Democratic official’s bad behavior that is documented in multiple national news articles from apolitical sources,” Wheeler said on his Facebook page.
On Thursday, after voting to support a bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee that would ban cities from adopting policies to protect immigrants who come into the country illegally, Wheeler said he didn’t have anything to say about the posts “at this time.”
“I believe I quoted CNN on that,” Wheeler said. “I’ll issue a statement shortly.”
Wheeler posted another racially charged comment Thursday about U.S. Senator and presidential nominee Elizabeth Warren, calling her “Pocahontas.”
He followed up that nickname by saying that “ok, unlike Virginia Governor Northam this nickname was given to her by President Trump.”
The Kentucky Democratic Party asked Wheeler “to stop posting racist content on his official Facebook.”
“Using racial slurs and sharing racially divisive conspiracy theories does not happen repeatedly and over the course of many years by accident. It’s intentional and with purpose,” said Marisa McNee, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Democratic Party, on the party’s official blog page. “Mr. Wheeler tried to delete his comments and then blame the members of the public who rightfully expressed outrage. That’s not acceptable. Phillip Wheeler needs to apologize and explain his behavior to the public. Republican leaders in the state senate should condemn the comments immediately.”
In a floor speech in the House of Representatives Thursday, Rep. Reginald Meeks, D-Louisville, without mentioning him by name, said Wheeler had displayed a repeated pattern of harmful, hurtful and insensitive comments on Facebook. He said even when people were critical of the comments, Wheeler doubled down.
“He has been asked not just to apologize, but to stop,” Meeks said. “And he has chosen not to do so.”
Meeks said the type of post Wheeler made was not just limited to the Senate, but happened in the House of Representatives, too. He said some lawmakers have demonized others on social media and have compared the Black Lives Matter Movement to ISIS.
“Fighting for civility is a full time job,” Meeks said. “It’s not something that’s done with a resolution or a post or a bill that’s passed by this body. It’s something we all have to fight for and be cognizant of every day of every year. Unfortunately, it’s not something that’s being done.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 12:51 PM.