‘GoAuto Guy’ apologizes for sexist insult aimed at Vice President-elect Kamala Harris
GoAuto Insurance founder Greg Tramontin is apologizing for a derogatory comment he made about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Facebook, calling backlash from the incident a “wakeup call.”
Tramontin, known for his “Greg the GoAuto Guy” commercials aired in Louisiana, has scrubbed his social media accounts amid outcry over a now-deleted post in which he described President-elect Joe Biden and Harris as “power hungry Joe and the hoe,” according to The Advocate.
He issued an apology Wednesday, saying the remark was “made in jest” and “obviously inappropriate.”
“Now I ask myself, why? Why did I think, for even a second, this was something to express?” Tramontin said in a statement, WAFB reported. “I have to be honest that I was caught up in the deep political divide and the toxic rhetoric that this country has been living in for the past several years. My words were hurtful. I sincerely apologize. This is my wakeup call.”
The CEO’s comments came during discussion about the 2020 presidential race between President Donald Trump and Biden, who was declared the projected winner on Saturday, Nov. 7.
“Trump was doing it for all the right reasons,” Tramontin wrote, according to screenshots found online. “He loved this country. It was in trouble. (He) doesn’t need this, unlike power hungry Joe and the hoe.”
Eugene Collins, president of the Baton Rouge chapter of the NAACP, called the comments “extremely troubling.”
“If you can refer to the vice president-elect of the United States in that way, imagine what he says about just everyday folks,” Collins told WAFB. “It represents the things that have been said by some white men in this country over time about Black women for a number of years.”
Harris, a California senator, is the first woman elected vice president, as well as the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve in the role.
Community activist Gary Chambers was equally bothered by Tramontin’s comments, and noted that much of the insurance company’s business is supported by Black women.
“As a Black man, I don’t just sit back and let Black women be disrespected,” Chambers wrote on Facebook. “If I allow it for VP Elect Harris, someone else will allow it for my Black daughter. That’s why this must be addressed. We can’t just let everybody slide all the time, his words should have financial consequences.”
GoAuto has faced calls for a boycott following the CEO’s remarks.
On Monday, Chambers called on Black residents to take their business elsewhere, writing: “There should be Black men and women calling to cancel their insurance policies and going where they won’t be called a hoe when they reach the second highest office in America.”
GoAuto offers “low cost insurance” in Louisiana, Ohio and Nevada, according to the company’s website. Tramontin founded the company in the late 1980s.
This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 8:14 AM with the headline "‘GoAuto Guy’ apologizes for sexist insult aimed at Vice President-elect Kamala Harris."