A GOP candidate for local office in New Jersey quit the race on Tuesday after a reporter revealed she’d received harassing messages from his social media account, ABC Action News in Philadelphia reported.
Michael Krawitz, who was running for the West Deptford Township committee, informed the local Republican Party group of his withdrawal in a confirmed handwritten note, the station said.
Krawitz’s decision came in the wake of damning comments he appeared to have posted on Daily Beast reporter Olivia Nuzzi’s Facebook page on Monday. One, shared by Nuzzi, said: “Fuck. You. Olivia, I. Hope. Somebody. Rapes. You. Today. :)”
Krawitz told the Philadelphia Inquirer his account had been hacked and that he had not written the comments. However, the West Deptford Republican Committee chairman said there is “no reasonable reason” to believe the GOP candidate was hacked.
Nuzzi says Krawitz has been trolling her since December 2014. In her own article about the harassment, she said Krawitz had left numerous comments on her Facebook page, using the same grammar that appeared in Monday’s comments. In August, Nuzzi said, Krawitz asked her about gun crime in Chicago and called her the c-word.
“When a former reality TV star can become the Republican nominee while offending and belittling entire genders, races, and religions, why wouldn’t a man seeking local office think that encouraging the rape of a woman he hates is OK?” she wrote.
“As a reporter, bullying of this kind from would-be politicians makes you fear for your First Amendment rights,” Nuzzi said in a statement to Action News. “As an American and a woman, it makes you fear for the state of our country and the safety of half the population that inhabits it.”
The latest round of profanity from Krawitz’s social media account appeared after Nuzzi shared a Daily Beast article on Donald Trump’s second wife, Marla Maples.
The Huffington Post left a message with a woman who identified herself as Krawitz’s sister at a number listed for him, but has not yet received a reply.
