Illinois State Democrats are now having to do damage control of their own after a retaliation incident occurred over The Squad controversy this week. The Kankakee County Democrats posted a response graphic to the “Jihad Squad” meme posted by Republicans last weekend. The Democrats’ meme compared President Donald Trump’s followers’ “Make America Great Again” red hats to KKK hoods on their Twitter Feed yesterday. The image depicted a person wearing a red KKK-style hood imprinted with the slogan.
The tweet, which has also been removed, was met by immediate criticism throughout the state from Democrats and Republicans. Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker said the image was “wrong and lacked civility in political discourse” in response.
The post was in retaliation to a similar controversy posted to Republican County Chairmen’s Group on Facebook depicting Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Presley of Massachusetts, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota in violent faux movie poster. State GOP leaders immediately went into damage control, recanting the image’s rhetoric as racist and unacceptable over the weekend.
According to a report posted by the Chicago Tribune about the retaliation, Kankakee County Democratic Chairman John Willard did not respond to a request for comment. The tweet was first reported by Crain’s Chicago Business yesterday afternoon.