Colorado ACLU leader resigns after comment about shooting Trump supporters

The co-chair of the Colorado Springs, Colo., chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) resigned Friday after saying he would shoot Donald Trump supporters. 

“I will have to shoot you before election day,” Loring Wirbel wrote in a Facebook post about the Republican presidential front-runner’s supporters. 

{mosads}Wirbel told The Gazette on Thursday that the post “was intended totally as a joke,” but he saw how it could been offensive.  

“They are taking that stuff out of context,” he added. “It’s smear politics.” 

Wirbel also compared Trump to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propagandist who advocated for the murder of millions of Jews. 

Daniel Cole, executive director of the El Paso County Republican Party, responded to the post saying it was especially appalling in a community recovering from a mass shooting at Planned Parenthood clinic, according The Gazette. 

Cole also called for Wirbel’s resignation. 

The ACLU of Colorado said in a statement that it did not “condone the recent personal Facebook post of regional volunteer Loring Wirbel.”