A Loudoun County, Va., GOP official resigned over the controversial email depicting President Barack Obama as a zombie with a bullet hole in his forehead, News4’s Julie Carey reported.
The Loudoun County Republican Committee’s communications director, Robert Jesionowski, took full responsibility for the email, which was used to promote Republican activities at a Halloween parade.
“I will not excuse my missing the connotation of the zombie pic of the president,” Jesionowski wrote to LCRC Chairman Mark Sell. “(Found it online, very late, while I was hastily putting the Halloween email together.) This was in bad taste, does not reflect my own principles nor those of any political activist or candidate I know in either party, and if I had reflected a little longer I would have caught it. A different pic ought to have gone out.”
Jesionowski found the image by search Google for “Obama & zombie,” Carey reported. He said that was to tie in to some young Republicans’ “Thriller” theme for the parade. Neither Sell nor anyone else saw the email before he sent it out at 2 a.m.
The email featured a montage that included the Obama image, a disfigured Nancy Pelosi, a jack-o-lantern and other images of zombies. The image was based on a poster from Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Democrats cried foul, the Secret Service took note, and Republican Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell called it “shameful and offensive,” the Associated Press reported.
Sell said the image was supposed to be light-hearted and inject humor into the holiday. He apologized to the president and anyone who got the wrong impression from the image.
