(WSVN) - A campaign staffer for Florida gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Gillum was fired over offensive tweets. He is now speaking out for the first time and says he has a lesson for everyone on social media. 7’s Brian Entin has the exclusive on his “Troubling Tweets.”
Manny Orozco made a career working on political campaigns as a youth organizer.
Manny Orozco: “We recruited an extraordinary group of students right across 10 campuses.”
At 24, he had already worked for politicians on local, state and national levels. He joined Democrat Andrew Gillum’s campaign for governor shortly after the primary.
Manny Orozco: “I’ve worked my heart out for the last few years to get to this point, and for it to come to this is beyond devastating.”
But two weeks after he was hired, Manny was fired over posts he made on social media.
It started with an Instagram photo of him wearing an anti-Republican T-shirt. Days later, some tweets he posted when he was in high school were also published.
Manny Orozco: “I was young and immature and foolish, and I thought they were funny. I thought they were cool or whatever it may be, and they’re not.”
Manny has since deleted the tweets, but these are the ones we can show on TV.
One says: “If you can take an [expletive], you can take a joke.
Another: “If you weren’t so ugly, I would put my [expletive] in your face.
And another: “To my [expletive],” with a picture that reads, ‘Shhh, it’s okay. You’ve been preparing for this your whole life.”
Manny Orozco: “Everyone my age, and even older folks who are using social media, they can have a really dire impact.”
Social media platforms make it easy to share videos and pictures and posts, but as Manny learned, what can seem like an innocent or funny post when you are a teen can come back to haunt you as an adult.
Tamika Bikham, TB Media: “Anything that you post on social media, online, blogging, whatever it may be, it’s going to be out there forever, so even though you delete it, people can still find it.”
The experts say parents need to warn and educate their children from a young age.
Manny Orozco: “I want this to be a lesson learned for every young person out there.”
Manny still doesn’t have a job and says he’s hopeful the day will come when these troubling tweets are behind him.
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