Facebook suspends Ohio sheriff’s account after controversial VP Harris post, wife says

The personal Facebook page of an Ohio sheriff has been suspended after he made a controversial post about Vice President Kamala Harris, his wife said.

Mandy Zuchowski, the wife of Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski, made the announcement on her Facebook page Wednesday, Sept. 25.

“Facebook suspended Bruce’s page,” she said with an angry face emoji. “He did not take it down if you’re looking for him. Just fyi. We’ve had many people reaching out.”

It’s unclear if the sheriff violated any Facebook rules, but the site can disable accounts that do not follow its standards of terms of service.

The sheriff made national headlines when he used insulting language toward the Democratic presidential candidate in a Sept. 13 post, McClatchy News reported.

He shared a photo of a Fox News broadcast, which blamed Harris’ “open borders (for)... destroying small towns” and fueling a “migrant crime wave.”

“When people ask me … What’s gonna happen if the Flip–Flopping, Laughing Hyena Wins?? I say … write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!” Bruce Zuchowski said in the Facebook posts. “Sooo … when the Illegal human “Locust” (which she supports!) Need places to live … We’ll already have the addresses of ... their New families … who supported their arrival!”

The post was no longer visible on the sheriff’s Facebook page as of Sept. 23, according to previous McClatchy News reporting.

Bruce Zuchowski said a few days after the post that his previous statement “may have been a little misinterpreted.” But in the same post, he said voters should “accept responsibility for their actions.”

Many people viewed his initial comments as voter intimidation, leading the Portage County Board of Elections to remove Portage County sheriff’s deputies from providing security for in-person early voting for the upcoming election.

Randi Clites, the chair of the Portage County Board of Elections, said it was “clear” there was “perceived intimidation by our sheriff against certain voters.”

“I believe walking into a voting location where a sheriff deputy can be seen may discourage voters from entering,” Clites said on Facebook.

Bruce Zuchowski, a Republican up for re-election in November, has not shied away from the spotlight. He appeared on Fox News on Sept. 25, defending his previous statement.

“I’m not going to do anything illegal as the sheriff,” he said on Fox News. “After all reasonable things have been taken care of as far as what we can do with the people, I simply made a comment to some people on my personal Facebook page that we need to remember where these signs were because when there’s nowhere else to put these people, I look at it as a welcome mat for people who supported (Harris).”

Portage County is about a 40-mile drive southeast from Cleveland.