Jeb Bush’s chief technology officer resigns after racist comments

Late Tuesday, Jeb Bush accepted the resignation of Ethan Czahor, Chief Technology officer, after evidence surfaced that Czahor has a history of making racially insensitive comments.

Bush originally hired the digital guru to work for his Bush’s Right to Rise political action committee in preparation for his likely 2016 presidential campaign.

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In 2008 Ethan had a college radio show and made a string of inflammatory remarks including praise for the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for not speaking in “jibberish” nor wearing “pants sagged to his ankles,” as well as commentary that “black parents need to get their sh@# together” because too many black babies were being born into single-parent households. The comments were first reported Tuesday afternoon by The Huffington Post.

Czahor’s comments have threatened to undermine Bush’s outreach to minority communities. Shortly after Czahor’s hiring was first reported on Monday by Time.com, Democratic operatives highlighted some of his old Twitter posts, which included offensive messages about “sluts.” Czahor deleted many of the tweets, but not before they were catalogued by Buzzfeed.

Bush’s current campaign

Bush, a former Florida governor, has been aggressively raising money and preparing for what allies see as an all-but-certain presidential run. He is considered a favorite for the Republican nomination and has been testing a campaign message based on expanding economic opportunity to all Americans, especially minorities. He stood by Czahor amid the social media storm but did admit the comments were inappropriate.

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Czahor has apologized for the regrettable and insensitive comments. He respectfully resigned from his position and said “I only hope that my recent news won’t dissuade future techies from entering politics, regardless of political affiliations/backgrounds.