Republican’s racist Facebook posts resurface — threatening to kill his special election chances

A Pennsylvania Republican, Frank Scavo, who is seeking to win a special election seat next week, is responding to controversy Friday surrounding recently surfaced Facebook posts from his personal account.

"They existed in 2015 [and] 2016 and one meme said 'a jihadist with an IED is more dangerous than climate change,'" he said to local TV station Fox56 Friday in an effort to stave off the criticism. Then he added, "In 2015, that's what was going on."

But it may not be enough for the Lackawanna County lawmaker, as anger bubbles up in the community.

Already, Scavo has deleted the posts and made private his personal Facebook page. Still, according to Fox56, "this week local state lawmakers issued a joint statement questioning Scavo's fitness to serve.

But Scavo is taking a Trumpian view of the controversy, essentially calling it all a witch hunt.

"It is a kangaroo court type orchestration for political theatrics," Scavo told the news station Friday.

Earlier this week, Scavo was voted out as president of the Old Forge School Board as a result of the resurfaced social media posts.

"It's political bullying and it's a vendetta, and I'm not the first in the district to be attacked,” said Scavo Thursday.

The Intercept ran a long profile on the lawmaker this week, in which they reveal some of his worst now deleted Facebook posts.

“ISLAMICS will use any excuse to kill!!!,” read one of Scavo’s Facebook posts from January, 2015, The Intercept reported.

Scavo is running in the 114th District's Special Election next Tuesday, facing Democrat Bridget Malloy Kosierowski in a bid for late State Representative Sid Kavulich's vacancy, Fox56 reported.

Watch the segment here.