Parry apologizes
Mike Parry, the Republican backed candidate in Minnesota Senate District 26, is apologizing for his past tweets. Parry wrote on his twitter account that President Obama was "a power hungry arrogant black man." He later deleted the tweet.
The Waseca County News and the Minnesota Progressive Project are all over this story.
Parry released the statement just minutes before DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez was set to hold a news conference criticizing Parry.
Here's Parry's statement:
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"I sincerely apologize for past tweets which were written in haste and out of the
frustration I felt for the out of control spending in Washington. Given the fragile state of
our economy and the kind of out of control and wasteful spending we're seeing from
Democrats, the people of Senate District 26 must have an election about the future.
While volunteers to my campaign removed several tweets without my knowledge, I take
full responsibility for all mistakes in my past tweets. I will never stop fighting to make the
lives of all Minnesotans better."
DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez said Parry needs to be more specific and wants answers as to whether he wrote the comments and later deleted them:
"He admitted that he made the one about President Obama and he apologized for that. Ok, fine. But what about the one linking Democrats to pedophiles? Why were 33 tweets scrubbed? Is he referring to all 33 of them and does he now admit that they are all his? If he does then that apology means something but the way the apology is written, it's vague and ambiguous and you can't tell what he's talking about."
Here's the DFL newser:
Parry is running to replace Republican Dick Day who is leaving the Senate to become a lobbyist. The DFL candidate is Jason Engbrecht and Roy Srp is the Independence Party candidate. The special election will be held on January 26th.