{"id":247825,"date":"2026-07-20T17:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/247825\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T17:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:42:07","slug":"allegheny-county-spokesperson-on-leave-after-instagram-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/247825\/","title":{"rendered":"Allegheny County spokesperson on leave after Instagram video"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA spokesperson for Allegheny County has been placed on administrative leave after a social media video surfaced featuring controversial comments that appeared to target a local radio host.In a video posted on her Instagram page, Abigail Gardner pointed to Colin Dunlap&#8217;s comments on air quality warnings, quoting him as saying, &#8220;Our forefathers used to be outside in the smog and smoke a pack on top of it.&#8221;Gardner responded with the following statement: &#8220;(Dunlap) should smoke a pack on a bridge and then jump.&#8221; Monday afternoon, Gardner was placed on administrative leave.  In a statement, Gardner said, &#8220;I made a tasteless comment out of frustration, and I apologize for my lapse in judgment. Suicide should not be a topic that is joked about or used to insult others.&#8221; &#8220;My comments were out of line, and I especially apologize to the employees of Allegheny County that I did not hold myself to a higher standard while representing the County,&#8221; Gardner added. Gardner is on leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation. If you are concerned about yourself or someone else, you can talk online with a crisis counselor through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline\u2019s website or call 988.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Allegheny County has been placed on administrative leave after a social media video surfaced featuring controversial comments that appeared to target a local radio host.<\/p>\n<p>In a video posted on her Instagram page, Abigail Gardner pointed to Colin Dunlap&#8217;s comments on air quality warnings, quoting him as saying, &#8220;Our forefathers used to be outside in the smog and smoke a pack on top of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gardner responded with the following statement: &#8220;(Dunlap) should smoke a pack on a bridge and then jump.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Monday afternoon, Gardner was placed on administrative leave.  <\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Gardner said, &#8220;I made a tasteless comment out of frustration, and I apologize for my lapse in judgment. Suicide should not be a topic that is joked about or used to insult others.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My comments were out of line, and I especially apologize to the employees of Allegheny County that I did not hold myself to a higher standard while representing the County,&#8221; Gardner added. <\/p>\n<p>Gardner is on leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation. <\/p>\n<p>If you are concerned about yourself or someone else, you can talk online with a crisis counselor through the <a href=\"https:\/\/suicidepreventionlifeline.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Suicide Prevention Lifeline\u2019s website<\/a> or call 988.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spokesperson for Allegheny County has been placed on administrative leave after a social media video surfaced featuring&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10771,52580,104678,105886,105888,105887,105891,105889,62752,105894,105893,52581,15653,49287,26860,57100,35172,73,75,74,105890,6985,105892,105895],"class_list":["post-247825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-abigail-gardner","tag-administrative-leave","tag-air-quality-warning","tag-allegheny-county-spokesperson","tag-apology","tag-colin-dunlap","tag-controversial-comment","tag-controversial-comments","tag-county-employee","tag-instagram-page","tag-instagram-video","tag-internal-investigation","tag-judgment","tag-lapse","tag-leave","tag-monday-afternoon","tag-pack","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-social-media-video","tag-statement","tag-suicide-reference","tag-tasteless-comment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247825","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=247825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}