Pennsylvania Woman Throws Nazi Salute and Finds Out

FAFO

A Pennsylvania Republican and the Vice Chair of the Towamencin Township Board of Supervisors resigned after throwing up an Elon Musk-like Nazi salute on TikTok.

“Just checking in on my friends who are struggling this week,” Laura Smith says before making the gesture. “My heart goes out to you. Hope you’re doing okay.” 

Some of Smith’s township colleagues called her post “repugnant” and “blatant antisemitism.”

Smith later told a local NBC affiliate that her TikTok greeting “has been greatly mischaracterized,” and that she removed the clip because she didn’t want to “give offense.”

“I abhor racism, anti-Semitic or discrimination in any fashion or form and my record as a township supervisor attests to my commitment to treat all people with dignity and respect,” she said.

The ADL Philadelphia regional director told The Philadelphia Inquirer that her actions had “impacted and caused harm to the community which must be acknowledged.”

On Sunday, Smith posted to the township website her resignation to “allow the Township to move forward without the encumbrance of the fallout of my video.”

In response, township officials said the board of supervisors intends to accept Smith’s resignation, and that the board “cannot and will not tolerate such conduct.”

Smith was also a board member of the Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library. The library board also announced that Smith had resigned from that position as well.

HuffPost, Philadelphia10