Fresno State GOP backpedals on insulting remarks on military. Will group be disciplined?

A day after receiving backlash for insulting veterans and U.S. military members on social media, the Fresno State College Republicans sent another message on Twitter that had many questioning its sincerity.

The Fresno State GOP sent a tweet, timestamped at 12:02 a.m. Thursday, stating that the group does, in fact, support the U.S. military.

The tweet also provided an ambiguous explanation why previous tweets from the same account posted disparaging remarks about the same military and made fun of veterans who suffer post traumatic stress disorder.

“The CSU Fresno College Republicans have always supported and appreciated our military members, veterans and all who have made sacrifices for our great nation.

“Security passwords have been changed to avoid any further distasteful posts and need for anything similar to be removed.”

In previous tweets that were deleted while interacting with a disabled vet-turned-comedian, the Fresno State College Republicans took shots at former Army medic Patrick Loller for one of his videos that advocated wearing masks and called anti-mask people “cowards.”

“You’re such a hero that you’ll break down when I light fireworks next door,” the Fresno State College Republicans tweeted, before the post eventually was deleted.

Fresno State College Republicans then sent out a follow-up tweet, which had remained posted late Wednesday but was deleted by Thursday morning after media outlets reported the social media tiff occurring between the group and the vet-turned-comedian.

“Maybe guys who are actually fighting in combat are brave and whatnot, but the vast majority of our military are glorified DMV employees,” the deleted tweet from Fresno State College Republicans read. “They work against what we as conservatives believe all the time with few exceptions.”

Loller said he served 10 years in the Connecticut Army National Guard and was a combat medic and part of a infantry battalion that was sent to Afghanistan in 2010.

Loller, in the phone interview, admitted he intentionally tries to mock anti-mask/anti-vaccine people with his videos “because the pandemic is real and I think what they’re doing is wrong.”

Fresno State said it planned to have the dean of students review the incident, though the university never directly mentioned which student group.

Meanwhile, it is unclear if Fresno State College Republicans are claiming their account was hacked, with the hacker being responsible for the anti-military remarks, or if one of their own members was responsible for the tweets and will no longer be allowed to access the group’s account.

Several people on social media weren’t buying the explanation. Some believe the group was mimicking the actions of former President Donald Trump and his behavior toward veterans such as former Senator and prisoner of war survivor John McCain.

Others wondered why a hacker would write a tweet insulting the military, delete it, then send another insulting tweet about the military and keep that posted.

Some also questioned why the group never issued an apology to the military or to Loller himself.

Loller on Thursday said no one from the Fresno State College Republicans or the university had contacted him.

Other organizations have since become involved in the drama.

Among them was the California College Republicans, which sent out a tweet saying the Fresno State College Republicans should not face any disciplinary action or they will take legal action.

“(Fresno State College Republicans) are well within their First Amendment rights of protected speech,” the California College Republicans tweeted. “If (Fresno State) attempts to take action against them, we will look into legal action in kind to remind them that they’re a public university bound by the Constitution.”

FIRE, which stands for Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and is a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia, posted on social media that it sent a letter to the Cal State University Chancellor’s office and claimed that Fresno State cannot investigate the student group “for its protected tweets” nor punish them.

“It is well-established that the First Amendment does not make a categorical exception for offensive expression, and equally well-established that it constrains public universities in penalizing students’ free speech,” the FIRE letter, written by program officer Alex Morey, reads. “The Fresno State College Republicans’ tweets, criticizing a disabled veteran and the broader U.S. Armed Forces, may be offense to many who read it.

“However, whether speech is protected by the First Amendment is ‘a legal, not moral, analysis.’”

Fresno State has not commented on the incident since Wednesday when it tweeted that the university supports the military and its veterans, and that social media posts by a student organization “are deeply concerning and inconsistent with the University’s core values.”

Fresno State has been put in a similar position before when a group or individual associated with the university wrote a critical and unpopular social media post and the school had to figure out how to handle disciplinary action, if any at all.

Back in April 2018, Fresno State professor Randa Jarrar publicly expressed discontent for former first lady Barbara Bush and the Bush family shortly after Barbara Bush died.

That created a firestorm, with many demanding that Fresno State fire Jarrar for her comments, even as a tenured professor

Jarrar, however, remains employed at Fresno State and the university said the professor did not violate any CSU or university policies while acting in a private capacity.

Whether the Fresno State College Republicans will face any discipline remains to be determined.

Messages left with the group were not returned.

This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 8:42 PM.