Lee Garrett, a contestant on the current season of ABC’s The Bachelorette, has locked his Twitter account after a series of racist, sexist, and Islamophobic tweets from before the show filmed were exposed.
“What’s the difference between the NAACP and the KKK? Wait for it… One has the sense of shame to cover their racist ass faces,” he posted, according to a screenshot from Twitter user @emesola. Garrett also appears to have tweeted a petition to have Black Lives Matter recognized as a terrorist group. In another tweet, he allegedly wrote, “When is the last time you saw a pretty feminist? There is a reason for this,” and in another: “I don’t hate Muslims, I do hate Islam. I just mindfucked a few liberals for standing for something while making reasonable sense.”
Garrett is currently vying for love on of The Bachelorette with Rachel Lindsay, the franchise’s first black lead.
More than a dozen alleged tweets from Garrett throughout 2015 and 2016 have been published by a handful of websites in the last 24 hours.
ABC and Warner Bros. — which produces The Bachelorette — had no comment on the matter, and Garrett did not immediately reply to BuzzFeed News’ request for a comment.
A three-minute promo for what’s to come hinted that Garrett may emerge as this season’s villain.
The announcement that Lindsay had been chosen as the next bachelorette felt like a long overdue decision as the franchise had infamously never featured a black Bachelorette or Bachelor.
Lindsay, who originally appeared opposite Bachelor Nick Viall earlier this year, was instantly a fan favorite and while her search for love got off to an awkward start, it appears that Lindsay’s time on The Bachelorette was well-spent since she — spoiler alert! — posted on Instagram that she is currently engaged.
Jarett Wieselman is a senior entertainment editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles. Wieselman writes about and reports on the television industry.
Contact Jarett Wieselman at [email protected].
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