Massachusetts town official calls CNN’s Symone Sanders a ‘stupid porch monkey’ in Facebook argument

A Trump-loving town official in Massachusetts has apologized for posting a racial slur on Facebook during an argument about Charlottesville.

Daniel Gion, highway superintendent for the town of Dudley, posted the slur while taking part last week in a Facebook political discussion and was placed on paid leave after another social media user reported his comments to town officials, reported the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

The Aug. 14 discussion about the white supremacist march in Virginia that left a counter-protester dead grew heated, according to the newspaper, and Gion lashed out in anger.

"Stupid porch monkey!!" Gion posted in reference to CNN political analyst Symone Sanders, who is black.

Another Facebook user, Destiny Grardner, took screen shots of that comment and others Gion directed toward her during the debate and shared them on the town's social media page.

“Dan Gion thinks black people are porch monkeys and he is a supervisor employed here," Grardner posted, and asked for the highway supervisor to be fired.

Town officials placed him on paid administrative leave, and the newspaper reported that Gion apologized Monday at a public meeting.

“I never should have let my emotions get the best of me," Gion said. "Sitting in my home on a Monday night at 9:30 the furthest thing from my mind was I was acting in the capacity of a town employee.”

Gion, whose Facebook page has been removed, follows President Donald Trump and some of his TV surrogates on Twitter, along with a handful of sports-related accounts.

He was hired by Dudley in 1979 as a truck driver and laborer, and he was promoted to foreman in 1993 and became superintendent in 1999.