North Carolina state Rep. Carl Ford became the latest legislator to attract criticism on Facebook this weekend after he posted an image criticizing liberals and then began deleting comments.
Ford, a Republican from Rowan County, on Friday posted a photo of an angry woman pointing, with the text "I'm a tolerant liberal! Agree with me or else you're a racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, redneck, gun toting, America loving bigot!"
Ford then explained the post � and why he's taken to deleting critical comments posted to his official Facebook page.
"I have been called every one of these names and many more in the past week," he wrote. "I can take it, but I don't have to leave the vile language and threats on my Facebook page. More than }ths of the comments had to be deleted and yes many blocked. I will not listen to foul mouthed individuals or be threatened."
After some commenters suggested that Ford's "tolerant liberal" post only added to the name-calling, the lawmaker's wife joined the Facebook discussion to point out that her husband didn't start it.
"These people were the first to start posting foul, filthy comments & threats to find him personally & wipe him off the planet on FB," Angela Ford wrote. "Even posting comments on a picture of Carl & myself saying 'Look at this gay couple.'"
Ford has been taking heat online for co-sponsoring a bill that would defy a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and restore the state constitution's ban on same-sex marriage. House Speaker Tim Moore has said the bill won't get a hearing, but it made headlines across the country last week, and was the target of late-night comedians like Trevor Noah of "The Daily Show."
The gay marriage ban's lead sponsor, Republican Rep. Larry Pittman of Concord, made news again when he compared President Abraham Lincoln to Adolf Hitler in a Facebook post.
Pittman hasn't spoken publicly about the comment, and on Sunday he posted a lengthy newsletter on his Facebook page that didn't mention the Lincoln comment or the marriage bill.
North Carolina House Republican leaders haven't responded to media inquiries about Pittman's comment, but individual lawmakers � both Republicans and Democrats � have weighed in with support for Lincoln.
Ford wasn't the only state lawmaker with a pointed message on social media this weekend. Sen. Joyce Krawiec � a Republican who once compared the brains of Women's March participants to "lard" � offered a notable tweet Sunday morning, a few minutes after posting a message celebrating Easter.
"God loves us all equally but he did not give us equal talents, gifts or intelligence," she wrote.
