Jeb Bush's tech officer resigns after controversial tweets

Catalina Camia | USA TODAY

Jeb Bush's chief technology officer said Tuesday night he resigned from his post, a day after he removed tweets from his personal account that the likely presidential candidate considered to be "inappropriate."

Ethan Czahor announced his resignation from Bush's political committee following an uproar about tweets dating back to at least 2009 that referenced women as sluts and made other derogatory comments about them. The deleted tweets were first reported by BuzzFeed, which published screen grabs of the messsages.

"The Right to Rise PAC accepted Ethan Czahor's resignation today," said Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell. "While Ethan has apologized for regrettable and insensitive comments, they do not reflect the views of Governor Bush or his organization and it is appropriate for him to step aside. We wish him the best."

The Huffington Post reported earlier Tuesday that Czahor had once praised Martin Luther King Jr. for not speaking in "jibberish" or "slang" and for not wearing "pants that sagged to his ankles." Czahor made those remarks while hosting a radio program in January 2008 at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.

After the controversy over Czahor's old tweets erupted, Bush's office sent out a statement Monday hailing him as a "great talent in the tech world" and said they were "very excited" to have him working for the Right to Rise PAC. Czahor is the co-founder of Hipster.com.

Czahor's resignation came on the same day Bush published thousands of e-mails from his eight years as Florida governor on a new website. Bush is moving ahead with his consideration of a White House bid by making policy speeches, hiring staff and raising money for a likely 2016 campaign.