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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s chief of staff tweeted and then deleted a photo on his personal Twitter account over the weekend that included an image of him flipping off the camera while the mayor eats pizza.
Thomas Cook, who has worked with Hogsett almost a decade, since the Democrat’s time as U.S. attorney, said the post was meant to be a joke among friends. And he said he deleted it when he “saw people were misinterpreting things.”
The tweet was a takeoff on a meme—which is essentially a themed, viral social media post—that has been sweeping across Twitter, Facebook and other sites over the past few days. The memes feature two photos, one labeled, “How it started,” and the other “How it’s going.”
Cook’s post included a photo of the mayor, city attorney Tim Moriarty and Cook under the caption “How it started” and the photo of the mayor eating pizza and Cook raising both middle fingers to the camera under “How it’s going.”
In a follow-up post, he credited the photos to the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, Taylor Schaffer, whom Cook said “did approve of this tweet and all complaints should be directed to her.” That post also has been deleted.
Schaffer told IBJ the images were “candid photos from around the office from various times over the past several years.” And she said Cook’s “account represents thoughts that are his alone.”
She referred additional questions to Cook.
Cook told IBJ in an email that the “weekend post was intended to be a joke about my relationship with my coworkers, not anyone else. I took it down when I saw people were misinterpreting things.”
He said he “love[s] working for this city and take[s] that responsibility seriously—much more seriously than my personal Twitter account that is usually filled with soccer scores and bad puns.”
Many “how it started/how it’s going” posts have been intended to be inspirational or to celebrate an achievement, such as photos at the beginning of a weight loss journey and another at the end or an athlete playing his or her sport as a youngster and then later with a trophy or celebrating a professional win.
Others have been funny or served as commentary on politics or the pandemic.
Cook deleted his post before it generated a significant amount of reaction. It had at least 67 likes and at least seven retweets, with a number of comments questioning the appropriateness off the post.
The Marion County Republican Party responded with a tweet that said, in part, “This is one of the most disgusting things we have seen from the Mayor and his staff. No care is given about the growing violent crime, defunding the police, businesses shutting down, or the citizens of the county #FailedLeader.”
The Hammer and Nigel Show—a conservative, drive-time show on WIBC-FM 93.1—retweeted the post to its followers. The show’s hosts, Jason Hammer and Nigel Laskowski, are relentless critics of Hogsett and his administration, particularly the mayor’s action and positions related to pandemic-related restrictions as well as downtown homelessness and violence.
WIBC radio host Tony Katz, another ardent Hogsett critic, posted a photo of the tweet after it was deleted, accusing the mayor and Cook of giving “Indy residents the finger. Literally.”
Indianapolis Mayor @indymayorjoe, Chief Deputy Mayor @thomascarlcook give Indy Residents The Finger. Literally.https://t.co/AvzapxJ0o3
— Tony Katz (@tonykatz) October 11, 2020
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Indy’s political occupant cannot take time to “be on camera” per Fox59 about the out of control violence, refuses to speak with anyone at WIBC about the state of the city or meet with faith leaders on solutions yet has time for this type of behavior further indicates their approval of all of the violence against it citizens and businesses.
Wow, a lot of conclusion jumping there.
Wow Sam, a lot of conclusion jumping there.
WIBC is basically propaganda so I don’t blame him there.
+1 Sam.
Why do people who are employed even use twitter anymore… Zero upside, only downside…
Slow news day and lol that IBJ defined what a “meme” is. Seems the outrage is mostly coming from alt-right talk radio, most of whom don’t even live in Indianapolis. I’m sure Hogsett wasn’t getting their votes anyway, but he did beat their candidate quite soundly in 2019.
Juvenile but seriously this is IBJ?
Still doesn’t top his former press secretary, Dan Goldblatt, from being fired for kicking a car during his lunch hour downtown. Boy, is he lucky that didn’t happen when all this race stuff was at a fever pitch. The fact he works as a director at the Paramount School of Excellence is disturbing.
Gotta hand it to Mayor Joe – eating pizza straight out of the box!
Juvenile; to be expected of Dumbocrats. I mean who on either side of the political fence would consider that funny in any way? Would Thomas Cook kindly explain what’s funny about that to anyone? To whom is he giving the finger…and why? Geeze, what a moron….but he is a Dumbocrat working on Hogsett’s office, so what else would you expect?
Literally “giving the finger” to the residents of Indianapolis!! What a joke of an administration and Mayor.
BTW, how’s that Red Line project working out?? Another massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars!
Big deal. This deputy mayor is actually really good and would make a great mayor. Dump Hogsett. He’s useless.
There goes Bob P again, clutching her pearls and exclaiming “Oh my!”
Predictably, Michael; you didn’t answer my question, “To whom is that idiot directing the ‘finger’…and why?” And BTW; I’m male, not female. (Of course, you liberals have, what, 52 genders to choose from, so I suppose it’s difficult to know with which group a person identifies on a given day…)