The Associated Press
reports Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, a Democrat representing Burien, tweeted, "Losing a football game sucks. Losing to a desert racist wasteland sucks a lot." Fitzgibbon tweeted the controversial message after the Cardinals
defeated the Seahawks 17-10 in Seattle.
Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon's tweet
twitter
Following the inevitable backlash, Rep. Fitzgibbon attempted to explain that he was only engaging in sports trash-talk and that people were taking his inflammatory tweet too seriously.
"If folks are going to take that too seriously, then I'm sorry about that," said Fitzgibbon.
The lawmaker also explained that Washington state residents "have not appreciated" Arizona's discriminatory treatment of immigrants, embodied by
SB 1070, the so-called "show me your papers law" that requires Arizona's law enforcement officers to question the immigration status of someone who has been detained or arrested when there is "reasonable suspicion" that the person may be in the United States illegally.
After deleting his offending tweet, Fitzgibbon then tweeted this half-apology:
Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon's tweet
twitter
Washington state Rep. J.T. Wilcox, a Republican, tweeted that Fitzgibbon's remarks "make us all look bad" in the Evergreen State.
