Westbrook, MAINE - Maine Democratic Party Chairman Phil Bartlett issued the following statement today after it came to light that the Republican Mayor of Waterville, Nick Isgro, took to Twitter to verbally attack a survivor of the Parkland school shooting. 

Isgro, who is well known for his bombastic and often aggressive rhetoric on Twitter, appeared to tell shooting survivor David Hogg to “eat it” in a tweet, which has since been deleted but not before it was captured by a screenshot. According to a WMTW TV reporter, Isgro had no comment and the Maine Republican Party has remained silent when asked. 

Isgro becomes the second Maine Republican to attack a Parkland school shooting survivor. Last month, Maine State House candidate Les Gibson called survivor Emma Gonzalez “a skinhead lesbian” and referred to Hogg as “a bald-faced liar”. He later dropped out of the race. The Maine Republican Party also did not step up to condemn those comments.

“Barring the unlikely event that this tweet was somehow manufactured, Nick Isgro should be ashamed of his comment. Simply put, it is not representative of the people of Waterville.

“It’s completely fine to disagree with someone, but to verbally attack a student who has survived the unimaginable is beyond the pale. These young people are courageous and inspiring, and we should be looking to them as examples - not lashing out at them for standing up for what they believe in.

“Isgro’s remarks reveal a dark strain of ideology within the Maine Republican Party - one that is not shared by the vast majority of Maine Republicans, but one that seems to have found a home within the party nonetheless. That’s why today we call on the Maine Republican Party to condemn Isgro’s remarks instead of hiding from them, and urge Republicans across the state to stand up against this type of hatred and bigotry.”

Isgro’s comment is just the latest by Maine Republicans that reveals a larger problem within the party. Last month, GOP House Les Gibson called Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez a “skinhead lesbian” and claimed she wasn’t a survivor of the shooting because she was in a different part of the school. Gibson also called Hogg a “bald faced liar”. Gibson’s comments drew no condemnation from the Maine Republican Party or any of the Republican candidates for governor.

Last month, Maine GOP operative David Sorensen was fired from his White House speechwriting job after his wife alleged he had physically and verbally abused her on several occasions. Subsequently, Governor LePage offered him a job and was one of several Maine Republicans that defended Sorensen and discredited his accuser.

Just this week, a client of Republican candidate for District Attorney Seth Carey was granted a protection from abuse order from Carey, who she alleges posed an immediate and present danger to her and had sexually assaulted her.

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