Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who currently chairs the Democratic National Committee, defended an aide whose six-year-old Facebook joke about "Jewbags" recently went viral.
The aide, Danielle "Dani" Gilbert, was recently hired by the DNC to act as a liaison to the Jewish community. On the day her new position was announced, the conservative Washington Free Beacon posted a photo of Gilbert, who is Jewish, posing with friends and playing into offensive Jewish stereotypes. The photo had the caption "Jewbags."
"She was 20 when she posted that picture," Wasserman Schultz said Monday. "I spoke to my own children and gave that unfortunate posting as an example of how, no matter what you think is funny among your friends, nothing on social media is private."
Wasserman Schultz also denied a report by BuzzFeed that Gilbert had been hired despite the objections of top Obama campaign officials.
"I've known Dani Gilbert since she was 15 years old," Wasserman Schultz continued. "She's a Yale graduate, a graduate of the London School of Economics, she has been my foreign policy aide for almost three years. And she's incredibly poised, intelligent and that is not reflective of her maturity today."
Gilbert apologized for the photo last week.
"I apologize for any harm postings on my Facebook page made years ago may have caused anyone," Gilbert said in a statement. "I meant no offense."