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Pennsylvania Senate Democratic nominee John Fetterman’s campaign press secretary said she was “mortified to be an American” after the 2016 presidential election and shared potentially insensitive remarks about Africans and Indians in past posts shared to social media.
In a series of tweets, most of which stem from her time in college, Emilia Winter Rowland, a 2017 graduate from Ohio State University who joined Fetterman’s campaign as a senior spokesperson in July, made several questionable comments about minorities.
Following the 2016 presidential election, Rowland, appearing upset with the results ahead of a trip to Israel, issued a tweet saying she was “mortified to be an American.”
While in college, Rowland, who formerly served as communications director for Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., also made a plea for company and “comfort” as she read Karl Marx.
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In a series of tweets, most of which stem from her time in college, Emilia Winter Rowland, a 2017 graduate from Ohio State University who joined Fetterman’s campaign as a senior spokesperson in July, made several comments that targeted minority communities in America and abroad.
(Twitter)
“Someone come sit with me and comfort me as I spend my night reading the communist manifesto,” she wrote in an October 2013 tweet.
Rowland also made potentially insensitive remarks in tweets directed toward Black Americans, Africans and residents of India.
In 2014 tweet, Rowland said her brother was the “BIGGEST thug,” also shared a quote attributed to someone referred to as “Roomz” that read: “‘Whenever I eat Good Bars I feel like a small African child being fed’ -Roomz.”
Less than a year prior, in October 2013, Rowland tweeted a quote from an unnamed person that used the word “chocolate” to refer to having sex with black men.
“‘This is probably the only chocolate I’m gonna get this summer, and by that I mean black d—‘ – anonymous,'” Rowland wrote in the tweet.
In July 2012, Rowland issued another quote in a tweet from an individual she was familiar with who claimed to have the “a– of a black woman.”
In an August 2012 tweet, Rowland appeared to be quoting a member of her family who said they would name their “new black toyota” after former President Barack Obama.
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“‘Our new black toyota will be coming in a few days,'” she wrote. “‘We’re naming it barack’ #grandmapru #youareinlovewiththepresident.”
Rowland also offered insensitive remarks geared toward the Indian community and revealed her interest in “Indian accents,” which have long been used to stereotype the community.
Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman.
(Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The barefoot Indian boy is running laps around the RPAC” — a possible reference to Ohio State’s Recreation and Physical Activity Center — Rowland wrote in a November 2012 tweet.
The same year, Rowland tagged a Twitter user in a post and asked if they remembered “our videos where i spoke in my Indian accent?”
On Independence Day 2013, Rowland said she kept having to tell herself that a zit between her eyes made her “look like an Indian princess.”
In addition to her remarks on African Americans and Indians, Rowland also shared in a tweet that she once had a dream she was “married to a midget.”
“I’ve been asleep for 17 hours and dreamt that I was married to a midget and was a professional bowler #coolcoolnicenice,” she wrote in the October 2014 tweet.
Rowland also took aim at then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in a 2019 tweet, asking if he could “go away now” because of his prior support for the Hyde Amendment, which has blocked federal dollars from paying for abortion procedures and has been a part of every government spending bill since 1976.
“Okay joe Biden can go away now please,” Rowland stated. “Supporting the Hyde amendment is NOT PROTECTING WOMENS’ RIGHT TO THEIR BODIES. It’s regressive, hypocritical and shows that the former vp doesn’t even believe in separation of church & state. BYE bitch!”
Other tweets from Rowland appear insensitive in nature, including one referencing Adolf Hitler, who led the Nazi regime responsible for killing an estimated six million Jews, and another in which she called someone a “dike.”
In a 2012 tweet, Rowland, who was apparently writing a paper on Hitler and the fictional “Harry Potter” character Voldemort, said she and her father found it “funny” to tweet quotes from Hitler and Voldemort.
“[T]hat moment when you’re writing a paper on hitler/voldemort and you and your dad think its funny to tweet quotes by hitler and voldemort,” Rowland wrote in a tweet in May 2012.
Rowland also appeared to refer to someone as a “dike” in a December 2013 tweet.
Pennsylvania Republican Senate nominee Mehmet Oz, left, and Pennsylvania Democrat Senate nominee John Fetterman.
(Hannah Beier/Bloomberg Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images)
“Good thing Meryl’s a dime slash dike,” she wrote.
Following a Fox News Digital inquiry to the Fetterman campaign about the tweets from her account, Rowland’s account was made private.
Fetterman’s team responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by suggesting the insensitive tweets should be off limits because of Rowland’s relative young age when she made the posts.
The revelation of Rowland’s past tweets comes just months before Fetterman, who currently serves as the lieutenant governor in Pennsylvania, will face off in the state’s Senate election against Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz in November.
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Fetterman faced backlash on social media late last month after a video of him claiming that ID shouldn’t be required to vote because “poorer” people and “people of color” are “less likely to have their ID” resurfaced online.
Steven Cheung, formerly White House special assistant to former President Trump, blasted Fetterman over his tweet, writing, “Fetterman is a racist who thinks people of color are incapable or lack the mental capacity to have their ID cards. Because in his mind, minorities are a bunch of low-life’s who can’t do something simple like get their ID cards.”
