While millions across the country watched last night’s Super Bowl, a prominent South Carolina Republican spent the time tweeting crude comments about the game and its participants, leading to a series of arguments that are still ongoing.
Todd Kincannon, a Columbia attorney and ranking member of the South Carolina Republican Party, apparently drew the last straw in the Twitter community with the following message, submitted at 9:09 p.m. on Feb. 3:
“This Super Bowl sucks more d--- than adult Trayvon Martin would have for drug money.”
Martin was the unarmed, young African-American who, while walking in his father’s subdivision, was shot and killed by a Neighborhood Watch coordinator in February 2012.
Retorts from many were quickly responded to in counter-tweets from Kincannon, who answered with insults and additional questionable comments on race, violence and homosexuality.
In other tweets submitted during the game, Kincannon referred to Colin Kaepernick, the biracial quarterback who started for the 49ers in yesterday’s game, as “quadroon” and “mulatto.”
In an interview this evening with Huffington Post Live, Kincannon defended his Twitter statements, saying “they were just for fun.” (See video of interview below.)
Between 2004 and 2010, Kincannon served as executive director and general counsel of the state GOP. He also once served on the Republican National Committee, and in 2011 ran for state party chair.
While this series of vulgar tweets might take some aback, Kincannon’s already well-known for offensive Twitter communication.
- In July 2011, Columbia’s Free-Times reviewed Kincannon’s tweets to be “irreverent, insensitive, cruel and uncouth(.)”
- In November 2011, national media reported that Kincannon made vulgar references to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, calling the California congressman “whore,” “bitch” and even worse. He acknowledged to TPM that the tweets were from him, stating “I think a lot of people need to learn how to take a joke.”
- In May 2012, an online “Ending Todd Kincannon” petition was created after the attorney issued statements received as racist on Twitter and Facebook.
- In October 2012, a conservative online journal reported that Kincannon was caught “sexting” (not once, not twice, but three times), submitting nude photographs of himself and requesting the same from women in the Columbia region.
This history contradicts his public statement against former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned from congress in May 2011 after caught tweeting suggestive photos of himself – the same misbehavior for which Kincannon himself is now accused. On Sept. 13, 2011, Kincannon suggested that people send the Republican who replaced Weiner “some disinfectant. The office needs it.”
Following his still-ongoing Twitter tirade, a Columbia TV station issued a formal statement denying any affiliation with Kincannon. “He is not now – nor has he ever been – an employee of WACH Fox.”
Kincannon had appeared as a legal commentator on WACH’s “Good Day Columbia” four times in 2011, including a Sept. 15 broadcast that year on the legality of sexting.
On Jan. 5, Kincannon began promoting a retaliation method against what he alleged to be organized campaigns to falsely label conservative tweets as spam, thus limiting their reach and damaging Twitter accounts.
This “#TGDN” (or “Twitter Gulag Defense Network”) method is reportedly used to hinder the Twitter accounts of non-conservatives, however.
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