An aide to Gov. Phil Murphy has been suspended after posting derisive religious and political comments on social media, the second time in the past month the governor has had to answer for an employee.

Unlike his previous defense of hiring a former Passaic councilman who served prison time for taking bribes, Murphy moved quickly to take action. But at the same time, Murphy also placed some of the blame on President Donald Trump.

The aide, Neomi Velazquez, who is listed in public payroll records as an aide earning $60,000 a year, appeared to post several comments in the past month concerning the Trump administration and Brett Kavanaugh, according to the conservative blog Save Jersey.

Screen shots of the social media postings were shared with the blog's founder, Matt Rooney. Those postings could not immediately be verified by NorthJersey.com and the USA Today Network New Jersey.

According to Save Jersey, Velazquez called leaders in the Trump administration "evangelist a**holes" and "molesters, liars, drunks, racists, heartless, bigots." Other screen shots include images of former president Barack Obama and Jesus, the U.S. Capitol building and the conservative commentator Candace Owens.

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Velazquez is a former Jersey City public schools employee and a founding member of the Latinas United for Political Empowerment political action committee, which promotes increased representation of Latin-American women in government.

Around the same time the committee called for Perth Amboy City Council President William Petrick to resign for what it called "misogynist, racially inflammatory and insensitive social media posts directed at women, Latinos, Muslims, and African-Americans," Velazquez posted her own charged comment on social media beneath an image of Owens, according to Save Jersey.

That post included a quote attributed to Owens that she believes Kavanaugh's denials of allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.

"WRONG AGAIN!!! Oops sorry, I forgot he's an evangelical and did a lot of church going. I wonder why it's not on his calendar," Velazquez wrote in a comment, punctuated with two tearfully laughing emojis, according to Save Jersey.

Kavanaugh, during questioning last week by senators, pointed to his high school calendar as evidence that he did not attend a party where Ford said the assault occurred.

When Murphy was asked Friday morning at an unrelated news conference in Cresskill about the reported postings, he said it was the first time he'd heard about them. But his first reaction was to tie them to Trump.

"Sadly, because of our president we are a very divided nation right now and we shouldn’t be," he said. "So this has inflamed an enormous amount of emotions on all sides of this, but I don’t think there’s any place for name calling and calling out whole categories of people."

When asked if he intended to talk to Velazquez about the postings, Murphy said, "Bear with me and when I digest it we’ll figure out what we’re going to do."

Hours later, Velazquez was suspended without pay for 10 days and ordered to undergo sensitivity re-training, according to an administration official.

“These comments by an employee on social media criticizing people of faith do not represent the views of the governor or the Murphy Administration – and we condemn them in the strongest terms. The matter is being addressed internally," spokeswoman Alyana Alfaro said in a statement.

This is the second employee Murphy has had to answer for in the past two weeks. The hiring of Marcellus Jackson, a former Passaic councilman who served prison time for taking bribes, prompted a backlash by lawmakers. Jackson resigned last week after the Attorney General determined the hire was illegal.

Murphy has continued to defend Jackson, who is black, by saying he deserves a second chance and suggesting the backlash had to do with racial injustice.

"It is invariably a person of color we’re talking about. This is New Jersey. It’s 2018. We have to get over ourselves," Murphy said this week. "We have to get to a better place and give folks — Marcellus and generations to come — a second chance."