A former top GOP official in South Carolina is drawing flak for a series of racist tweets he apparently fired off during the Super Bowl on Sunday night.
Todd Kincannon, a lawyer who served as executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party between 2004 and 2010, joked about the Super Bowl, Trayvon Martin and the poor during the tirade.
.@coreybking Hey what's the difference between Trayvon Martin and a dead baby? They're both dead, but Pepsi doesn't taste like Trayvon.
— Todd Kincannon (@ToddKincannon) February 4, 2013
Later, he made a dig about the victims of Hurricane Katrina:
It hasn't been this dark in the Superdome since all those poors occupied it after Hurricane Katrina.
— Todd Kincannon (@ToddKincannon) February 4, 2013
Speaking on HuffPost Live on Monday, Kincannon refused to apologize, saying he sends out those types of tweets in order to get a rise out of people.
"One of the things I like to do on Twitter is I'll tweet something inflammatory, kind of borderline crazy-sounding just for fun. And I enjoy watching people go nuts. One of the best things about it is if you say something that's borderline offensive or if it is offensive, the people that attack you and say just the awfulest [sic] things about you, they do the very thing that they accuse you of."
“I think it is time for a conversation in this country about why a conservative isn’t allowed to state an opinion that other people happen to disagree with, without having death threats and being threatened with all kinds of various ridiculous things,” he continued. “This is real problem we have. People talk about political discourse in this country — you might think what I said was tasteless, you’re welcome to. But should I get death threats as a result of it?”
Kincannon's controversial tweets, while offensive, aren't necessarily out of character for the conservative politician, who was criticized last November for calling House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi the "C-Word," a b**** and a w****.
Later, Kincannon told Talking Points Memo that it was all in fun.
“I think a lot of people need to learn how to take a joke,” he said, “and I’ll leave it at that.”