RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The Republican Party of Virginia’s social media manager was fired over a social media post disparaging House Speaker Don Scott that drew widespread criticism from both sides of the aisle.
In a now-deleted post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the state party’s account sent out a message attacking Del. Scott (D-Portsmouth) over his 1994 drug-related felony conviction that led him to spend nearly eight years in prison.
“Is it any surprise that @DonScott757 spent 8 years in federal prison for peddling drugs to college kids, and now he’s obsessed with legislation to cut breaks for drug dealers? Anything for your buddies, right?” screenshots of the Feb. 15 post read.
Scott has been open about his prison time, tied to a case in which he was convicted of carrying drug money while in law school, calling it a “bad decision.” A U.S. Navy veteran and lawyer, Scott joined the House of Delegates in 2020 and was sworn in as the chamber’s first Black speaker in its more than 400-year history in January.
Republicans, including Gov. Glenn Youngkin, House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (Shenandoah) and state party chairman Rich Anderson, condemned the post. Anderson said he ordered that the post be removed and vowed to make “personnel changes.”
Pointing to “a story of redemption” that played out in his family, Anderson called it “personal” and apologized for the message in a post on X.
“Today, I learned of a very personal attack on @DonScott757 that does not reflect my values or that of our party. I had neither seen nor approved the tweet—but the buck stops with me,” Anderson wrote.
Anderson told 8News he fired the staffer responsible for the post, ordered the creation of “an internal weekly messaging plan” and placed himself “at the top of the approval chain.”
“This sort of tweet wasn’t in keeping with my view on how I want us to message to the public, so I directed creation of an internal weekly messaging plan, put myself at the top of the approval chain, and changed our social media manager,” Anderson wrote in an email Tuesday. “That’s pretty much it.”
In a subsequent phone call, Anderson did not say who was fired but told 8News the Virginia GOP will bring in a new social media manager.
When asked if he had spoken with Scott about the post, Anderson said he called the speaker’s cell phone last week and left a message but “didn’t hear back.”
Virginia Democrats denounced the message, some directing blame at Youngkin and calling for Anderson to be ousted as chairman while noting other social media posts from the Virginia GOP account disparaging Scott and others.
“For years, this account has exclusively targeted Black officials for some of the most vile, racist comments. @DonScott757 is the latest target,” Del. Candi Mundon King (D-Prince William) wrote on X. “Me, @SenLouiseLucas and so many more. If @cToddGilbert and @GlennYoungkin are seriously remorseful, they will fire @RichAndersonRPV.”
In 2022, the Virginia GOP deleted a tweet about a $25,000 political donation Jewish philanthropist George Soros, a Hungarian-born billionaire linked to several false conspiracy theories that have been condemned for sometimes including antisemitic tropes, gave to Scott.
Scott denounced the tweet, which described Soros — an American citizen who lived through Nazi occupation in Hungary — as a “foreign ultra left-wing billionaire,” as “antisemitic filth.”
A spokesperson for the Virginia House Democratic Caucus did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
