A longtime aide to Brooklyn state Sen. Marty Golden who compared students protesting gun violence to Adolf Hitler in a Facebook posting was ousted from his job on Tuesday.
“Anthony Testaverde is no longer employed by my office. While freedom of speech is a right, that all citizens enjoy, what occurred in this instance was wrong and cannot be tolerated,” Golden said in a statement.
Testaverde, a special assistant to Golden for more than a decade, posted a photo of Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg pumping his right fist into the air in front of a “MARCH FOR OUR LIVES” logo.
Next to Hogg was a photo of Hitler raising his hand in a “Heil Hitler” salute.
In a second comparison, Testaverde posted and shared a photo of Hogg with a black mourning band on his arm, next to a picture of a solider in a Nazi uniform and regalia.
Testaverde also shared a post that said: “The Democrats are doing Exactly what Hitler did. He used the Youth to disarm and Control the People This is scary!”
In a Facebook thread, Testaverde was unrepentant when criticized for the hateful content he was sharing. After a man pointed out Hitler killed Jews and the comparison was “disgusting,” Testaverde replied that Hitler “had to start somewhere.”
Ross Barkan, a Democrat running against Golden, had called on Republican incumbent to fire Testaverde for the vile posts.
“Anti-Semites, racists, and far-right conspiracy theorists have for years opposed common-sense gun control measures by invoking the name of Adolf Hitler. As the great-grandson of Jews who fled anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, I am deeply mortified that a staffer for the state senator who represents me would endorse such vile viewpoints,” Barkan said.
Golden initially issued a statement late Monday saying Testaverde’s “wrong and offensive” and “misguided” posts had been removed — but stopped short of terminating him.
It’s been a rocky 12 months for Golden, who came under fire last year for calling a Democratic Council candidate “fat boy” and saying that “opioids are not ghetto drugs anymore” and getting into an altercation with a cyclist.



