Hobbs press aide resigns over tweet with gun imagery

Josselyn Berry resigned as Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs' press secretary on Wednesday following uproar over a tweet she posted with imagery of guns directed at "transphobes."

Driving the news: Berry's since-deleted tweet stated, "Us when we see transphobes," with an image from the 1980 movie "Gloria" showing actor Gena Rowlands holding a pistol in each hand.

Context: She posted the tweet Monday night, less than 12 hours after a mass shooter killed six people, including three children, at a private Christian school in Nashville.

• Berry's post came in response to someone who replied to her previous tweet stating: "If you work in the progressive community and are transphobic, you're not progressive. Period. End of story."
• Berry's Twitter profile has been set to private and it remains unclear whether her tweets had any connection to the Nashville shooting.

What they're saying: "The Governor does not condone violence in any form," the Hobbs administration said in a statement Wednesday. "The post by the Press Secretary is not reflective of the values of the administration."

• The administration had no immediate comment when The Arizona Republic contacted it for a story published Tuesday night.

Zoom in: Republican lawmakers began calling for Berry to be fired on Tuesday afternoon and the conservative Arizona Freedom Caucus issued a statement from GOP Sen. Anthony Kern calling the tweet "reprehensible and massively disturbing."

• "Less than 12 hours after the tragic shooting in Nashville by a deranged transgender activist @katiehobbs' Press Secretary calls for shooting people Democrats disagree with," the Arizona Freedom Caucus tweeted Tuesday. "Calling for violence like this is un-American & never acceptable."

• The Arizona Freedom Caucus and other critics of Berry's tweet said that she directed violent imagery at people she deemed anti-trans the same day that a shooter, whom authorities had at one point identified as transgender, attacked the Nashville school.
• News outlets outside Arizona, including the New York Post and the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom, also covered the story.

The other side: Berry did not respond to a request for comment from Axios Phoenix.