Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Fires Two Employees For Racist, Anti-Hispanic Remarks

For the second time in several months, Wisconsin Governor and 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker has fired an employee for posting racist remarks about Hispanics on social media.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Walker’s deputy campaign finance director Taylor Palmisano was fired from her job Tuesday for tweeting several anti-Hispanic messages. The offending tweets date back to 2011, before she was employed with Walker’s re-election campaign. Several of the tweets see Palmisano lashing out at Hispanics simply for being in the same area as her.

One tweet threatens violence against a Hispanic library worker simply for doing her job of cleaning the area where Palmisano was working.

"I will choke that illegal mex cleaning in the library. Stop banging (expletive) chairs around and turn off your Walkman," Palmisano wrote on March 9, 2011.

Two months earlier, Palmisano took a bus from Pasadena, Calif., to Las Vegas after seeing the Wisconsin Badgers play in the Rose Bowl. While on the bus, Palmisano complained about the number of Hispanic riders and assumed that many or all of them were undocumented immigrants.

"This bus is my worst (expletive) nightmare Nobody speaks English & these ppl dont know how 2 control their kids #only3morehours #illegalaliens."

Walker campaign spokesman Jonathan Wetzel says that Palmisano was fired immediately after other staffers discovered the tweets on Tuesday. At the time of her firing, Palmisano had been employed with the Walker campaign for just over a year, taking on a full-time role in July after completing an internship and graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Taylor Palmisano has been immediately removed from her position with the Friends of Scott Walker campaign," Wetzel told the Journal-Sentinel. "Both the governor and the campaign condemn these insulting remarks, which do not reflect our views in any way."

Palmisano has since deleted her Twitter and Facebook profiles, though her LinkedIn account remains active. She also released a statement apologizing for her statements.

"I deeply regret these offensive and irresponsible remarks," she told the Journal-Sentinel. "I sincerely apologize, and understand the consequences of making such unacceptable statements."

Palmisano is not the only Walker worker fired for posting anti-Hispanic messages online. In August, Steven Kreiser, assistant deputy secretary at the state Department of Transportation and a top aide to Walker, likened undocumented immigrants to Satan.

“[W]e get to be treated to the incredible chutzpah of hundreds of thousands of these criminals marching in the streets in broad daylight, demanding all the benefits of citizenship from a country whose laws they are breaking even as they are standing there,” Kresier wrote. “The illegals themselves have bred the animus that many American citizens feel toward them. You may see Jesus when you look at them. I see Satan.”