South Carolina Republican Apologizes For Gorilla Remark About First Lady

June 15, 2009 11:54 a.m. EST

Columbia, SC (AHN) - A South Carolina Republican has apologized for calling an escaped gorilla the ancestor of First Lady Michelle Obama.

Reacting to a Facebook post by an aide to state Attorney General Henry McMaster about a gorilla escaping from Riverbanks Zoo, GOP activist and former a state Senate candidate Rusty DePass commented last Friday, "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless."

The Facebook comment, captured with a screenshot by FITSNews, has since been deleted. And so has DePass' Facebook account.

DePass has apologized and told WIS-TV, "I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. The comment was clearly in jest." But he added he was only referring to statements by the First Lady that humans descended from apes, saying, "The comment was hers. Not mine."

A similar controversy erupted in February, when the New York Post ran a cartoon showing two white police officers shooting a gorilla while saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

At the time, police in Connecticut had shot to death a gorilla that attacked a close friend of its owner. But there was also intense debate in Congress about President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The bill was signed into law that same month amid Republican criticisms about the cost of the legislation and the "permanent expansion" of some government programs.