Dem candidate spouted QAnon slogan and told ‘racist’ Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez that she hated Hispanics

Tony Moreno is running on the Democratic ticket for mayor of Pittsburgh, but he's posted tweets in support of Donald Trump and has boosted QAnon slogans, Action News 4 reports.

This Tuesday, the Pittsburgh City Paper reported on Moreno's long history of pro-Trump tweets. Since the story was published, the tweets have been deleted, but Moreno told Action News 4 that he's proud of his stance.

"I'm not ashamed of appreciating and being thankful for a president that showed support for those two professions," he said, referring to his past in law enforcement officer and the military. When asked about other tweets, where he calls Trump critics "vermin," Moreno said he was simply trying to be provocative.

"My way (to) come out and try to be heard was to be bombastic in that language I was putting out," Moreno said.

In 2019, Moreno slammed Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), calling her a "racist communist progressive jester."

"You hate Hispanics. You hate police," he wrote in response to an anti-Trump tweet by Ocasio-Cortez.

That same year, he tweeted "WWG1WGA" -- or "where we go one, we go all," a slogan associated with the far-right conspiracy theory "QAnon." But he told Action News 4 that he's not "a QAnon candidate."

Moreno has also attacked former president Barack Obama, calling him a "fake Christian," but he says he doesn't remember the exact details as to why he posted the tweet.

In another tweet where he declared that he was running as a Republican, he said that he "wrote that wrong."

"There's no way to run as a Republican in the City of Pittsburgh," Moreno said.