by Staff report
As Billings Legislator Rep. Rodney Garcia dances around the fallout from both
Garcia changing his tune with side-stepping letter
Democrat and Republican party leaders as well as Republican leadership calls for him to resign, Garcia sent out a letter saying now that his comments were “delivered and perceived as a joke.”
In the wake of his controversial comments and Garcia’s rejection to resign from party leaders, former Billings City Councilman Chris Friedel filed paperwork last Friday with the Montana Secretary of State’s office to run against Garcia in the upcoming June primary election.
Garcia continues to attract national attention from comments he made at the MT Republican Winter Kickoff meeting in Helena and continued calls for him to resign. In the meeting, Garcia referred to the constitution as his basis for his comments in that it is unacceptable to be a socialists and that they should be “jailed or shot.” State Representative Rodney Garcia said that there are a lot of socialist in Billings and alluded that he does not want them around. Garcia rejected party leadership and others’ calls to resign and stated that he will only resign if God tells him to.
In his letter, Garcia stated, “I made two headline grabbing statements. The first was Socialists should be shot or imprisoned. The second was the Constitution authorized this response.” In his letter, Garcia stated that “my statement was totally inappropriate.”
Garcia’s letter appeared to be an attempt to sidestep the issue and refocus the consequences of his inappropriate comments he made while attacking party leadership hypocrisy for their inability to call out others in a united way.
The sudden change in tone and response in his letter to leadership comes weeks after he was questioned at the event where he stood by his comments originally. Garcia had also talked to other media outlets since the event and did not mention that his comments were meant as a joke until the release of his letter this week. Garcia’s letter stating his comments were a joke now comes on the heels of former City Councilman Chris Freidel filing paperwork to run again him.
Montana Speaker of the House, Greg Hertz, offered the following statement this week on Rodney Garcia’s refusal to resign: “While we are disappointed by Rep. Garcia’s refusal to do the right thing and resign, the fact is he is a lame duck legislator and the cost of a special session is simply too great. The voters will now decide his fate in the June primary.”
