Chaos Continues: Rauner’s Office New Hire Compared Abortion to Nazi Germany

Rauner Needs to Explain What’s Going on in the Governor’s Office

In a rush to replace 21 staffers that either resigned or were fired in the past two weeks, the Governor’s office hired two people whose offensive backgrounds immediately became problematic for Bruce Rauner. The headlines:

Politico Headline: “Rauner fires staffer with history of homophobic tweets.”

Chicago Sun-Times Headline: “New Rauner hire compared abortion to Nazi eugenics in blog post.”

Oof. The Sun-Times expands on today’s revelation:

“One of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s new communications aides has argued that abortion is being used ‘to rid the world of disabled and other ‘unwanted’ persons’ — comparing it to Nazi Germany. Communications specialist Brittany Carl has also taken on organized labor in her on-line posts, contending that teachers unions should be dissolved.”

Both staffers share a common background. The tweeting staffer worked as an intern for the right-wing Illinois Opportunity Project (IOP), and the blogging staffer is married to an IOP executive. Perhaps then it’s just a coincidence that Rauner’s new political director was recently President of the Illinois Opportunity Project.

Is Rauner’s office just negligent in hiring practices? Or is it letting politics dictate staff hires?

“Rauner turned over his office to a bunch of right-wing extremists,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “After suffering an embarrassing budget defeat, Rauner could have refocused his operation on working to help the middle-class. Instead Rauner is doubling-down on the same politics that brought us a two-year budget impasse by bringing in right-wing ideologues. Rauner needs to explain to the public if his office was either negligent in hiring practices or if they believe these views are acceptable.”  

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