It’s the most unlikely place you’d think someone would receive backlash for supporting president-elect Donald Trump, but Texan television reporter Scarlett Fakhar claims she has been fired for her views.
The 25-year-old, who works for Fox News in Houston, posted a status on her personal Facebook page last week saying she was “happy and relieved” over Trump’s election win.
The post, which has since been deleted, also said current President Barack Obama was responsible for making the “entire county hate one another,” and that God “had a hand” in the election results.
On Thursday, Fakhar shared a status on her public page, writing "Fox 26 Houston fired me today for expressing my conservative views on my private Facebook page."
"That is all I will say for you. But I want you to know how much your support has gotten me through this. God bless you all."
The post received almost 4,000 likes and over 1,000 comments.
Just hours later, she posted again, claiming "FOX 26 Houston is trying to take my fan page down now! DON'T LET THEM!" Fakhar included the hashtags #FREEPRESS #FREESPEECH #FIRSTAMENDMENT.
Another post expressed her outrage that the Houston Chronicle had wrongly interpreted her personal status about Trump (pictured above). She claimed the newspaper incorrectly reported that she criticised African Americans, in reference to her statement that the "number of African-Americans killed one another [sic] far outweighs the number of them being killed by whites.”
"The media has made this a RACE issue when in reality the matter boils down to a difference in political philosophy," she wrote on Thursday. "As a multiracial person myself, I never have been or never will be racist."
"I simply stated the fact that the media continues to misrepresent the factual realities that there is NO more white on black crime than there is black on black crime."
Do you think people should be fired for their political views?
Listen: Mia Freedman is calling up people in her life who disagree with her on the US election results.
Top Comments
To be fair, I don't think she was fired for praising Trump, she was fired for breaking a workplace social media policy.
The headline is extremely misleading. She wasn't sacked for supporting Trump; she was sacked for the Facebook rant. Her contract probably includes a social media clause which she broke by attacking African Americans and college students.