A former volunteer for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is in a lot of hot water after tweeting a very dismissive and insulting tweet about Carryn Owens, the widow of U.S. Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens, who was applauded at President Trump's address Tuesday.
The emotional moment was praised on all sides as one of the most remarkable in recent political history, but Dan Grilo believed it was a good idea to snipe at the widow and do it publicly on his social media account.
While Grilo deleted the tweet soon after the public outcry, many had a screenshot of the offending message, which read, "Sorry, Owens' wife, you're not helping yourself or your husband's memory by standing there and clapping like an idiot. Trump just used you."
It was in response to a tweet that he linked, which read, "Owens' wife is crying, and she looks up at the ceiling, overwhelmed, as Congress gives her, long, sustained applause."
The tweet was even re-posted by Donald Trump Jr., as an example of the hatred from the left. "Hatred from the other side," he remarked. "I would think this is beyond what a human is capable of saying to someone, but it's not!"
Grilo has since deactivated his account, but he is learning the consequences of thoughtlessly tweeting insults on social media. Trump supporters began bombarding his employer, Chicago-based Liberty Advisor Group. They posted a statement saying they had relieved Grilo of his duties.
Last night during President Trump’s speech, a Liberty Advisor Group employee sent out an offensive and inappropriate tweet regarding the Gold Star family that was being rightly honored before Congress and the Nation. The personal views of this individual do not represent Liberty and we vigorously disavow them.
The company said the tweet was inconsistent with their values of respecting members of the military.
Regardless of whether the comments in the tweet were intended to cause the hurt and anger that they ultimately generated, they were unacceptable to us, and the individual who issued the tweet is no longer affiliated with Liberty.
Grilo was likely referring to the accusation by some that Trump was using the occasion of the widow's grief to undermine criticism of the Yemen raid where her husband lost his life. Ryan Owens' own father has called for an investigation into whether the raid was motivated by political reasons, as it was ordered in a country targeted by Trump's travel ban just days after he declared the ban.
Defenders of the administration had responded that the raid had been approved before the inauguration and was set for the earliest time available because of weather considerations.
