Chicago Opponent Denies Liking Tweets Mocking Lori Lightfoot as a ‘Gnome’ and ‘Racist’
Chicago Mayoral candidate Paul Vallas landed in hot water for the second time in recent weeks after Twitter users discovered his liked Tweets that included jabs at current Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and support for controversial policies such as stop and frisk.
Vallas is currently the top-polling candidate in the race.
Some of his liked tweets also took shots at other Chicago politicians, including attacks on Alderman Reilly and Quigley.
In December 2021, Vallas liked a tweet: ‘The Mag Mile will soon be Dystopian Way, akin to a road out of a Mad Max movie. Made desolate by the total indifference of woke Ald. Reilly and Rep. Quigley and the fifth floor gnome.’
Many tweets Vallas’ account liked portray the city as a disaster ravaged by crime, like this in December 2021: “The Mag Mile will soon be Dystopian Way, akin to… a Mad Max movie. Made desolate by the total indifference of woke Ald. Reilly & Rep Quigley & the 5th Floor Gnome.”
— Harris Meyer (@Meyer_HM) February 28, 2023
Another tweet that was a reply to Vallas implied that Lightfoot was a man or had a manly appearance.
‘I bet Larry Lightfoot is with his family today,’ one tweet last June read, in response to Vallas giving a shoutout to police officers and other first responders on Father’s Day.
Vallas also liked a tweet mocking Lightfoot’s physical appearance. ‘Trust has eroded, just like her hairline!’ Said one user, replying to a Vallas tweet mentioning rising crime in Chicago.
Trust has eroded just like her hairline! Her lies keep getting bigger just like her forehead!
— kaZoo (@xtenplayer) November 19, 2021
In another tweet from June 2022 that was liked by Vallas’ account, a user criticized the ‘Democratic agenda’ in Chicago, which included :
‘Just don’t push that Democratic agenda that the citizens of Chicago are tired of hearing. You know, defund this, reform that, color this, female that. We just want someone to do the job.’
Vallas’ Twitter likes did not stop at taking shots at elected officials. He also liked a Tweet calling Chicago’s Police Superintendent David Brown a diversity hire and calling the mayor a racist for hiring him.
‘He was hired for one reason, and one reason only. He was black,’ the tweet said. ‘Other candidates were more qualified, but they weren’t black. ‘Lightfoot is a racist, big news flash.’
The guy was in over his head from the first. He was hired for one reason and one reason only. He was black. Other candidates were more qualified, but they weren't black. Lightfoot is a racist, big news flash.
— joseph hain (@josephhain) April 21, 2022
Vallas has denied personally liking the Tweets, saying that staffers had access to his Twitter account and were the likely culprits. He said he would remove the people responsible for liking the Tweets from his campaign if they were identified.
‘We are working on identifying who is responsible for liking these tweets, as many volunteers have had access to the account in recent years, including some who are no longer with the campaign, and will take immediate action in removing them from our campaign if they are still involved.’
Later, he backtracked and told CBS News Chicago that the account was hacked. ‘It’s obvious we got hacked, and in fact, even though we shut down our system, changed our password, they’re still trying to hack us.’
After first saying he would track down the campaign volunteers who liked bigoted posts, Paul Vallas now tells @cbschicago his @paulvallas account was hacked https://t.co/L6a9eDA2WS
— Dan Mihalopoulos (@dmihalopoulos) February 25, 2023
In response, Lightfoot took a shot at Vallas and tweeted out a meme implying that she did not believe Vallas’ alibi, captioned: ‘Paul Vallas finding out who hacked his Twitter account.’
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https://t.co/sgfNkTR75x pic.twitter.com/t3pgUcbKZP
— Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) February 25, 2023
Vallas removed all of the liked Tweets from his profile, where it now says, ‘@PaulVallas has not liked any tweets.’
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