paduchik.jpg

Ohio Republican Party Executive Director Katie Eagan created this Twitter account on Sunday mocking Bob Paduchik, the Ohio director for the Donald Trump campaign. The account was deleted on Monday, and this image is a cached version captured by Google.

(Google)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A high-ranking employee at the Ohio Republican Party made a 'bad decision' when she created a crudely named Twitter account that mocked the director of Donald Trump's campaign in Ohio, according to the state party's top official.

In a brief email on Wednesday, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges acknowledged that ORP Executive Director Katie Eagan created the parody Twitter account on Sunday that mocked Bob Paduchik, the Ohio state director for the Donald Trump campaign. The account was created on Sunday, the day after Paduchik publicly renounced the Trump campaign's relationship with Borges, and deleted on Monday after Eagan was outed as its creator.

"It was a bad decision made in the heat of the moment," Borges said. "The matter was dealt with immediately."

The episode has laid bare long-simmering tensions between the Trump campaign and the state party, which is closely aligned with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a prominent Trump critic.

Borges also referenced Eagan's "mistake" and defended her in a separate Wednesday email to state central committee members. In the email, which was obtained by cleveland.com, Borges also defended granting several critical interviews with state and national media about his relationship with Trump, and sharing with reporters advice he said he had given the GOP nominee.

Borges also wrote that his family had been threatened with violence since the release of Paduchik's letter.

"The campaign's strategy has been to divide Republicans and threaten and browbeat anyone who has misgivings about their vote," Borges wrote. "That simply doesn't work in terms of getting enough votes to win. Folks deserved to know that Mr. Trump has been willing to listen, has always been kind and polite with me even when I'm raising issues with him that we do not agree on, and that he's has always kept his word -- something we know [Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton] would never do."

More about the Twitter account

The account, called @bobpadouchebag, posted several tweets making fun of Paduchik, to whom it referred to as "Baby Bob." It was abruptly deleted on Monday after Third Base Politics, a conservative Ohio blog, said it had identified Eagan as the author.

"Green with envy, has a job for 3 more weeks," the account's biographical profile had read, in a reference to the imminent Nov. 8 election.

(Click here to view the account as it was cached by Google.)

Eagan, who remains in her job, created the account after Paduchik publicly criticized Borges in a Saturday letter to members of the state party's central committee.

Paduchik's letter accused Borges of mounting a publicity campaign, at the expense of Trump's Ohio campaign, for a planned future run for chair of the national party. It also accused Borges of exaggerating his relationship with Trump, and said Borges "no longer had any affiliation with the Trump campaign."

Borges responds to internal criticism

Borges' Wednesday email came in response to an email sent the day before by Ann Becker, a conservative Southwest Ohio ORP committee member.

In her message, which copied other central committee members, Becker questioned Borges about the Twitter account, and accused him and the state party of soft-pedaling its support for Trump.

"What is the status of Katie Eagan's employment?" Becker wrote. "Katie is great at what she does, but the creation of a mock Twitter account...disrespecting the head of our Trump in Ohio campaign...cannot be tolerated. Wasn't the reason [Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman] and then you renounced Mr. Trump bad language? Wouldn't douche bag qualify as bad language?"

Borges responded in his Wednesday email: "Abusive language and behavior toward women is an extremely important issue to me. It is a personal one. It's also one of the reasons that I've worked so hard against the Clintons ever since they first ran in 1992, and continue to. No matter the party, that behavior cannot be excused. And I've spoken up about it."

Borges continued: "For this 'indiscretion' I've had my loyalty to the party questioned, my family has been threatened with physical violence and I've been lied about by certain people whose opinion of me I couldn't care less about."

Borges also knocked down what he said was "speculation" that he would run for chair of the Republican National Committee.

"At no point have I taken my eye off the ball... Any speculation about the RNC Chairmanship has come from outside sources and my total focus is winning races here in Ohio," Borges wrote.

Other members of the state central committee told cleveland.com this week they didn't want to belabor the dust-up between the state party and the Trump campaign, saying it would only distract the GOP from attempting to defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

"I think my only comment is that I'm focusing on the election," Columbiana County Chairman Dave Johnson, a state committee member and Trump supporter, said Tuesday. "I don't want to get into who said what."

After the parody account came to light, Seth Unger, a spokesman for Trump's Ohio campaign, issued a statement saying the campaign had moved on, and that the "grassroots wing" of the party is firmly behind Trump.

"If it is in fact true that the Executive Director of the Ohio Republican Party is spending time 23 days out from a critical election for American families setting up crudely named fake Twitter accounts to attack staff for the GOP presidential nominee, it is very disappointing and reinforces the Trump campaign's decision to address the State Central Committee directly with these issues this weekend," Unger said.

In a Twitter post Wednesday, Harrell Kirstein, Clinton's Ohio campaign spokesman, referenced the spat between the Ohio GOP and Trump's Ohio campaign.

"In related news today, Tim Kaine rallied hundreds of canvassers before they went door to door in Ohio to get out the vote for Hillary Clinton," Kirstein wrote.