Josselyn Berry, the press secretary for Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, resigned following a controversial tweet she posted on Monday after the deadly shooting at a Christian school in Nashville. The tweet vaguely supported gunning down “transphobes” and included an image of a woman brandishing firearms. Berry also tweeted that being “transphobic” is not progressive and responded to a Twitter user by tweeting the gun-toting GIF from the movie “Gloria.”
The New York Post reports that after her resignation, Hobbs’ office released a statement saying that the governor does not condone violence in any form, and the post by the press secretary is not reflective of the administration’s values. The shooting in Nashville left three 9-year-old students and three staff members dead and was committed by 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who identified as transgender and was shot and killed by police.
Berry previously worked at Progress Now Arizona, a left-wing nonprofit organization that provides strategic digital campaign services. The tweet was quickly denounced by Arizona Republicans, with the Arizona Freedom Caucus calling for Berry’s immediate firing and Arizona state Senator Anthony Kern calling the post “massively disturbing.”
