Maine Rep. Scott Hamann has resigned from his job at a regional food bank in the wake of backlash for an anti-President Trump rant on social media.
Hamann, a Democratic lawmaker from South Portland, responded to questions about his departure from the Good Shepherd Food Bank with a text message saying the backlash was affecting his employer and that the timing was right for him to move on.
“I have been considering changing jobs for the past year, since I completed my MBA last fall and would like to pursue employment opportunities more in line with my education level,” he wrote. “Particularly since Trump supporters from around the country were making threatening calls to the food bank to harass them into firing me over my satirical Facebook comment, it felt appropriate to spare my coworkers and an organization I love any more hassle. Good Shepherd was the best employer I could have asked for during the three years I was there, but this seemed like the right time to pursue jobs that put my degree to better use.”
Hamann was a project manager at Good Shepherd, a hunger relief organization that supplies food pantries and soup kitchens and is based in Auburn.
Hamann had said in previous interviews that he and his family had been subjected to hundreds of threatening phone calls and messages, including death threats, after posting an inflammatory message to a friend that he says was intended as satire.
Clara Whitney, director of public affairs for the Food Bank, said the food bank also has felt the backlash from Hamann’s post. “I can also confirm that we received many calls, emails, and social media messages regarding Scott’s remarks,” she said in an email.
Whitney confirmed that Hamann resigned but said in the email that the reasons why he left are part of his confidential personnel file.
Hamann’s controversial Facebook message, posted this month, included an obscenity-laced rant against President Trump. In the closing sentence of his post, Hamann wrote, “Trump is a half term president, at most, especially if I ever get within 10 feet of that (vulgar term).”
Hamann, who is serving his third term in the Legislature, also lashed out at Trump’s supporters and made reference to the president’s controversial statements about women and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was held prisoner for more than five years during the Vietnam War.
Republican Party officials captured a photo of the post before Hamann deleted it, and then circulated it with a statement condemning the Democrat. The post sparked a backlash against Hamann, who said he regretted posting it but that it was an attempt to use satire to highlight how vitriolic Trump’s supporters can be.
House Speaker Sara Gideon condemned the post and removed Hamann from both of his legislative committees as a punishment for the break in decorum. He later apologized to the full House of Representatives.
Hamann said he also was interviewed by Secret Service agents at his home, but that they accepted his explanation.
“Their determination was that it was a satirical political rant and not a threat in any way,” he said at the time. “Case closed. I did not make any threat.”
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