GOP donor Hung Mai calls for Hillsborough Republican Party Chair to resign after derogatory Facebook posts

Calls are continuing to roll in for Hillsborough County Republican Party Chair Jim Waurishuk to resign after a series of inflammatory posts against protesters.

“Mr. Jim Waurishuk, Chairman of Hillsborough County Republican Executive Committee (HCREC) posts are inappropriate and unacceptable as our County GOP leader. And this is not the first time,” prominent GOP donor Hung Mai wrote in an email to party members.

“Again, the recent posts demonstrated that Jim Waurishuk (has) poor judgment, racism, and incompetent leadership. With the 2020 election (in) less than 6 months, I am asking our faithful Republican, our Republican elected officials, and our Republican candidates requesting Mr. Waurishuk to apologize and resign his HCREC chairman(ship) immediately to save our local GOP and stop the embarrassment.”

On Tuesday, Waurishuk shared an article about former President Barack Obama’s statements on the protests calling them “a real turning point” in the fight for police reform.

His post was full of fiery rhetoric and claims that George Floyd protesters were bent on murder. Waurishuk said the post was not aimed at all protesters, just “violent hard core radical political left extremists.”

“Every American better wake up. If we loose (sic) this country you will loose (sic) your life. If you’re a Republican, Conservative, Democrat Trump supporter, etc. — you will be murdered. You will be dragged from your burning home and be beat to death. This is a fact. This what they stand for,” Waurishuk wrote about protesters.

Another post, which has since been deleted, showed an image of rifle bullets with the words “Welcome to rural America. We don’t use rubber bullets.”

In another, he called protesters “pathetic low-life cowards.”

The same day he said former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former CIA Director John Brennan, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, former Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr and “a host of others” should be “remanded into custody to swing on the gallows in the public square.”

As Mai pointed out in his email, “this is not the first time.”

In 2018, party leaders wanted him to resign after lackluster performance in the midterm elections.

Not only did Waurishuk resist calls to resign, he continued his divisive rhetoric into 2019, posting images and statements on social media that prompted criticism, and in some cases, posts actually being removed. Some of those included images of nooses and actual lynchings, made in reference to the President Donald Trump impeachment hearings, according to Creative Loafing.

As of Monday afternoon, Waurishuk had not responded to calls for him to step down nor had he issued any sort of public apology. In a somewhat related Facebook post Monday, he criticized the media for attacking Trump and his supporters.

There is an ongoing and concerted effort to thwart President Trump’s re-election, as well as a targeted and relentless media campaign against his loyal and biggest supporters,” Waurishuk wrote.

“It is a period of utter desperation for the mainstream media. You can expect to see more onslaughts against the President and his loyal surrogates ramp-up — with vicious lies and false stories created out of the blue.”

Reps. Jackie Toledo and Jamie Grant have both already called for Waurishuk’s resignation.