Arizona governor’s press secretary resigns after tweet suggesting violence

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs’s (D) press secretary resigned this week after posting a tweet that appeared to condone using violence against “transphobes” and included a photo of a woman holding two guns — published on the same day as a deadly school shooting in Nashville, Tenn.

Hobbs’s office said in a statement on Wednesday that her press secretary, Josselyn Berry, resigned after a tweet from her circulated saying, “Us when we see transphobes.” The tweet included a gif taken from the “Gloria” movie, which shows two guns being brandished by a woman.

Axios Phoenix reported that Berry was responding to another Twitter user who tweeted, “If you work in the progressive community and are transphobic, you’re not progressive. Period. End of story.”

“The Governor does not condone violence in any form. This administration holds mutual respect at the forefront of how we engage with one another. The post by the Press Secretary is not reflective of the values of the administration. The Governor has received and accepted the resignation of the Press Secretary,” Hobbs’s office said in a statement.

The tweet was posted on the same day that Nashville became the site of a deadly school shooting in which three staff members and three children died at the Covenant School, a private, Christian elementary school.

The shooter has been identified as a 28-year-old who once attended the school. There has been some discrepancy regarding the gender identity of the shooter. Nashville police spokesperson Kristin Mumford told The Associated Press via email on Tuesday that the shooter, Audrey Hale, “was assigned female at birth,” adding that “Hale did use male pronouns on a social media profile.”

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