Santa Rosa County, Florida, Commissioner Sam Parker downplayed an antisemitic remark he was recorded making to a store owner.
Facing criticism at a Commission Committee meeting, Parker was adamant that he had not used an ethnic slur when he told the store owner, "Hey, I'm going to have to Jew you down."
"I'm not referring to the Jewish community. I use that term as an adjective, as a descriptive word of bargaining them down," he was recorded saying in a video posted on TikTok on Tuesday by local watchdog nonprofit group Save Our Soundside. "The person I said it to knew it, I think you or anyone that's watching knows that, so yes, that is not an ethnic slur."
Parker was recorded making the antisemitic statement in footage provided to the Board of Commissioners on Monday by Chris Smith, the owner of a gun shop, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
Parker tried to shake down store owner
Parker was trying to shake down a store owner for a better price when he made the remark. "I guess if we would have brought cash you wouldn't have had to charge me tax," he said in the video.
According to the report, Smith was the first to call for Parker's resignation, questioning his morals and noting that he supports raising the sales tax that he is asking for a break on in the video.