A Republican group has distanced itself from an altered movie poster that had appeared on its Facebook page, depicting four progressive congresswomen as the members of “The Jihad Squad.” The post drew wrath from local Democrats.
The now deleted post appeared on the Illinois Republican County Chairman’s Association Facebook page on Friday evening. The image is a doctored poster to the 2013 action crime thriller Gangster Squad with the faces of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) photoshopped onto the protagonists.
“Jihad Squad”, the poster read, with the added tagline at the bottom: “Political Jihad is their game. If you don’t agree with their socialist ideology, you’re racist.”
It is unclear who created the poster, which circulated on social media for quite some time before an unknown GOP operative thought it would be good idea to post it on the association’s official page.
After the story broke on local media on Sunday, the outraged Cook County Democratic Party demanded an apology and for the post to be taken down, even though it had already been deleted by that point. The Democrats slammed it as “a racist and inflammatory attack” that “perpetuates the recent attacks by President [Donald] Trump.”
Cook County Democratic Party denounces the post and calls for an apology. It also calls for the post to be taken down which has already been done pic.twitter.com/ga0zqnucrN
— Craig Wall ABC 7 (@craigrwall) July 21, 2019
The Illinois branch of the Republican party was quick to distance itself from the posting, saying it was “unauthorized” and promising to tighten the screws on “internal review process” so no such publication makes its way to the public. Local GOP leaders condemned the poster, but also used the opportunity to criticize the progressive 'Squad' for their "socialist policies" and "anti-Semitic language," the Republicans' usual angle of attack against them.
As the Chairman of the largest Republican County organization in the State of Illinois, I am appalled by the most recent post on the FB page of the IL RCCA and their use of hateful rhetoric, and I am calling on them to immediately remove this post. pic.twitter.com/p7LGTBp2Vo
— Sean M Morrison