{"id":171983,"date":"2026-04-21T16:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/171983\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:47:23","slug":"lehigh-valley-congressional-candidate-bob-brooks-apologizes-for-old-facebook-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/171983\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Valley congressional candidate Bob Brooks apologizes for old Facebook posts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: This story first appeared on Armchair Lehigh Valley<\/a> and is being published on themorningcall.com<\/a> as part of a partnership with the website, which aims to give voters factual information in a nonpartisan way to help them make informed decisions at the polls. Armchair Lehigh Valley is run by Publisher Katherine Reinhard and editor Robert H. Orenstein, two former Morning Call employees. Learn more about Armchair Lehigh Valley and subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Democratic congressional candidate Bob Brooks has been pressed to explain two Facebook posts from 2019 that supported conservative perspectives, calling former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick a \u201cdouchebag\u201d in one and offering a pro-gun response to mass shootings in another.<\/p>\n

In a statement Monday, Brooks, one of four Democrats seeking the party\u2019s nomination for the 7th District in the May 19 primary, apologized for the posts, which had been deleted but only fairly recently became public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of my record of service as a first responder and union leader,\u201d Brooks said in a statement released by his campaign. \u201cPolitics is nasty \u2014 a bunch of DC insiders who don\u2019t want more working people in office are selectively digging up years-old Facebook posts. I\u2019ve shared a few stupid things over the years, and for that I am sorry. I believe who I\u2019ve fought for and my values have always been clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contested Democratic primary will determine which candidate \u2014 Ryan Crosswell, Lamont G. McClure and Carol Obando-Derstine are the other three \u2014 will challenge Republican first-term Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in November. The 7th District comprises Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties and a small section of Monroe.<\/p>\n

Election 2026: Here\u2019s where the money for the Lehigh Valley congressional race is coming from, and how candidates are spending it<\/a><\/p>\n

In one post on July 13, 2019, Brooks reacted to Nike stopping sales of a new sneaker that included what\u2019s known as the Betsy Ross flag on its heel. The decision came after Kaepernick, the face of a Nike ad campaign at the time, reportedly told the company the flag is connected to an era when slavery was legal. In 2016, Kaepernick, then with the San Francisco 49ers, sat or kneeled during the national anthem in protest of police brutality against Blacks.<\/p>\n

Brooks wrote, \u201cThe first thing in a long time both republicans and democrats are doing together! Thanks douchebag for helping bring the country together on something.\u201d Underneath his comments was an image of the flag with a message: \u201cColin Kaepernick doesn\u2019t like this flag, so I\u2019m gonna share it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His campaign said Brooks has mentioned the need \u201cfor reform within the police system in other posts too. \u2026 He believes \u2014 like many Americans \u2014 that there are other ways to protest that do not involve kneeling during the anthem.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Aug. 4, 2019, Brooks reposted a meme containing a phrase popular among Second Amendment supporters who see social ills, not access to guns, to explain mass shootings.<\/p>\n

This phrase appears superimposed over an image of Clint Eastwood holding a rifle, which came from a poster for his movie \u201cGran Torino\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cTHE PROBLEM IS NOT GUNS<\/p>\n

\u201cIT\u2019S HEARTS WITHOUT GOD<\/p>\n

\u201cHOMES WITHOUT DISCIPLINE<\/p>\n

\u201cSCHOOLS WITHOUT PRAYER AND<\/p>\n

\u201cCOURTROOMS WITHOUT JUSTICE\u201d<\/p>\n

In the corner of the image \u2014 not contained in the poster, however \u2014 is a Punisher skull with a Roman numeral III, a symbol of the Three Percenters, which the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League call a militia opposed to the federal government.<\/p>\n

The original was posted July 29, 2019, from the account of a sheriff in Wisconsin,\u00a0where a gunman shot and killed four people and wounded two others. Police fatally shot the gunman.<\/p>\n

Brooks shared the post one day after a white man targeted Hispanic shoppers at Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 and injuring more than 20. His campaign noted that \u201cBob had zero awareness of what this logo was. Knowing what he knows now, he never would have shared that post.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to ascertain how the posts will affect Brooks\u2019 candidacy, but at least two supporters continue to back him.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro, an early backer of Brooks, stands by his endorsement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Governor has made clear, Bob Brooks is the candidate to win this race and be the fighter the Lehigh Valley needs in Congress,\u201d Shapiro for Pennsylvania Spokesperson Manuel Bonder said in an email Monday.<\/p>\n

The Working Families Party also maintains its support.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob is the only candidate in this race that \u2026 supports progressive policies like Medicare for All, and has fought for working people throughout his life,\u201d Nick Gavio, Working Families Party spokesperson, said in an email.<\/p>\n

Lehigh County Commissioner Jon Irons, a Democrat and member of Working Families, said he has not endorsed a candidate in the 7th District election but was aware of the Facebook posts when Brooks sought the endorsement of the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find them deeply concerning and the post about the mass shooting is particularly hurtful,\u201d he wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not had the opportunity to address these comments directly with Mr. Brooks, but in my experience impact matters more than intent and sharing hateful images and rhetoric on social media has a detrimental impact on Black and brown communities. \u2026 While it is true in party politics that opponents will dig up dirt to smear other candidates, voters from all backgrounds can see through attempts to minimize and dismiss conversations like this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note: This story first appeared on Armchair Lehigh Valley and is being published on themorningcall.com as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,836,182,139,50,432],"class_list":["post-171983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-election","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}