The State Department deputy spokeswoman who said the "largest threat to U.S. national security are U.S. cops" characterized her 2016 comments on Tuesday as a one-off. But Jalina Porter made similar comments about the police as recently as 2020: Last June, she promoted a video directed at the Los Angeles Police Department that states, "Suck my dick and choke on it."
Porter, the State Department's number two spokeswoman, downplayed on Tuesday her 2016 Facebook post about American cops, which was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, saying that she should have "chosen words that were less passionate and spur of the moment."
But Porter made similar comments as late as 2020, according to copies of Twitter posts obtained by the Free Beacon. "I'm so tired of terrorist cops," she wrote in an Aug. 24 post.
Last May, Porter retweeted a message that likened police brutality in the United States to gross human rights abuses overseas—and condemned the foreign policy community for its failure to speak out. "Crickets," she wrote in response to a tweet claiming that white Americans involved in U.S. diplomacy "are miiiiiighty quiet while our own country burns and our police commit the same atrocities we condemn overseas."
The posts appear to contradict Porter's claims that her remarks about the police occurred just one time and in response to a fraught emotional situation.
Porter's 2016 Facebook post, which prompted her Tuesday statement, read: "The largest threat to U.S. national security are U.S. cops. Not ISIS, not Russian hackers, not anyone or anything else." The comments were apparently made in reference to video footage released the day before of an unarmed black man being shot by police officers in Tulsa, Okla.
"Comments I made five years ago on my personal Facebook account as a private citizen were in response to the uncomfortable—and deeply painful—truth of race-based violence in America that has continued ever since," Porter said in statement Tuesday published by Fox News. "The pain I expressed was real. Nevertheless, I should've chosen words that were less passionate and spur of the moment, as well as more constructive."
"I, of course, know well that not all law enforcement officers pose a threat to our community," Porter added. "Today, I am proud to stand as the State Department's first black woman deputy spokesperson, a position that affords me an opportunity to be part of the ongoing conversation regarding nationwide equity and inclusion, as we work to enhance the power of America's example overseas."
Porter previously served as an aide in the congressional office of now-top Biden White House adviser Cedric Richmond. At the time of the 2016 post, Porter was working for the Truman National Security Project, a left-leaning foreign policy think tank.
The State Department did not immediately respond to Free Beacon requests for comment on Porter's newly unearthed tweets.