When horse trainer Eric Reed’s longshot steed, Rich Strike, a last-minute scratch entry in the Kentucky Derby, won the race the whole world was happy for him and his family.
Videos showed his teary-eyed daughter proclaiming that nobody was more deserving, because of how hard he’d worked for so many years.
Then came this.
Sebastian Gorka (profile here) is a “fringe” Trump associate. The tweet was in January, months before the race, but surfaced this week. When ESPN asked him about it, Reed feigned ignorance and dodged the question.
There doesn’t seem to be any doubt it’s him. He doesn’t deny it (see story here). Instead, he referred to people questioning its propriety as “haters.” To a lot of people, it’ll look like he’s the hater. And maybe racist, too.
The horse is innocent, but many people may find it hard to cheer for Rick Strike in the remaining Triple Crown races, because they’ll no longer see Reed as someone who’s “deserving.” This takes the shine off his image as a role model.
Let us remember this was a private communication, unrelated to Reed’s work as a trainer, that occurred long before the race. It’s unclear who dredged it up, or how, or for what purpose. People are entitled to their opinions, even when their opinions are gross.
But Reed is now a public figure, and one of the risks of being a celebrity is that your past private conduct may come back to bite you, as many a Hollywood figure has found out.
It takes only one careless tweet to undo a public image or reputation. And tweets by famous people have a habit of being very, very public.
Moral: Think before you tweet. Don’t send anything you don’t want to read in the papers, because that’s where it could end up. This is also a reminder of how uncivil Republicans can be. (I don’t see Democrats talk about GOP women this way.)