A Democrat running for a seat in Minnesota's state legislature was forced to end his campaign after he tweeted over the weekend that "ISIS isn't necessarily evil," according to Minnesota's Star Tribune.
Dan Kimmel was running as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party to unseat an incumbent Republican from the state House in 2016 but was asked to fold operations by party leaders after he was unable to defend comments made on Saturday night.
"ISIS isn't necessarily evil," wrote Kimmel on his now inactive Twitter account. "It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though."
Kimmel attempted to backtrack from his comment, saying that his tweet was poorly worded and was not a response to the activities in Paris, according to the Star-Tribune report.
Kimmel, 63, tried to explain himself, posting in a follow-up, "I deplore evil acts of ISIS. I do not defend their acts." Kimmel’s tweets also were posted on his campaign’s Facebook page.
In further elaboration on Sunday, Kimmel wrote on his campaign’s website, "My tweet last evening was in response to a statement made during the candidate debates, not in response to the activities in Paris. It was poorly worded and did not convey my intent.
"I do think the attacks in Paris … along with other ISIS terrorist actions are cowardly and despicable. My heart breaks for the people of France, of Paris, the families of those wounded or killed and the casualties themselves. … I condemn the attacks, as I condemn all violence."
Kimmel added that he wants to "apologize to the volunteers and contributors who have put so much time, effort and money into my campaign. … I will do everything I can to help resolve the issue: most likely the best thing for me to do is shut up. The tweet was stupid. I’m sorry."
Kimmel had run for the same seat in 2014, when he lost by more than 10 percentage points.