Aide to California tax board member resigns over anti-Clinton hangman tweet

An aide to California Board of Equalization member Diane Harkey has resigned over posting to Twitter this week a picture of a hangman holding a noose with the message, “I’m Ready for Hillary.”

Nathan Miller, deputy district director in Harkey’s Riverside office for the tax board, submitted his resignation Thursday, according to Harkey’s office. Miller, a longtime Republican activist in the Inland Empire, also is vice president of the Riverside Community College District.

Wednesday’s tweet came from the account of the Riverside County Republican Party, according to The Press-Enterprise, which first reported the story. The tweet has since been removed.

Democrats said the post encouraged violence toward Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “That is not political satire. That is a threat,” Howard Katz, the chairman of the Riverside County Democratic Party, told the newspaper.

In a statement, county party GOP Chairman Scott Mann said he was “horrified” by the “derogatory Tweet this afternoon toward Secretary Clinton.”

“While some may think it was political satire, it clearly has no place in American political dialogue,” he said.

Harkey, elected in 2014 to a board district that includes much of Southern California, previously served in the Assembly. Her office had no comment on Miller’s Twitter post.

John Hall, spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, said no criminal complaint had been received.

This story was originally published August 4, 2016 at 3:38 PM.