Rep. Joe Heck apologizes for son’s ‘offensive’ Twitter rants

By Andrew Doughman

Published Thursday, June 13, 2013 | 1:59 p.m.

Updated Thursday, June 13, 2013 | 3:25 p.m.

Nevada Rep. Joe Heck’s teenage son has used his Twitter account to insult women, demean gay people and poke fun at President Barack Obama’s race.

From August through last month, Joey Heck tweeted pejorative slurs such as "faggot,” mentioned that his mustache makes him look like “a dirty Mexican,” and told his schoolmates that “I’ll stab you in the throat” if they talked to him about the president. The younger Heck, who just completed 10th grade at Coronado High School in Henderson, also tweeted that Obama was good at “spear chucking and rocking skipping” because these are the sports they do in his “home country.”

The Republican congressman apologized for the comments after Buzzfeed broke the story today.

"I am extremely disappointed in my son's use of the offensive and inappropriate language on Twitter: That type of language has never been permitted in our home,” Heck said in a statement. “I apologize to everyone he may have offended. My son also apologizes for his insensitive behavior. My wife and I have addressed this family matter directly with him and he has learned from it."

Heck tweeted often about the lacrosse team he played on, going to the gym, music, television shows, high school classes, his social life and other details.

But he also often used Twitter to hurl insults, calling those without school spirit “queers” and writing “fanny pack = fag bag.” “That’s what my mom calls them,” he tweeted about fanny packs.

He tweeted that “I hate repeating myself to Asian people,” that hitting a “ginger” or person with red hair might make a fun game, and that there were families speaking Spanish at a soccer game, a tweet to which he added the hashtags “Mexicans” and “liberty.”

The congressman’s son also referred to his father several times, often to tout his political knowledge.

“I'm pretty sure I know more about politics than any of you,” he said in a tweet. “I mean it's not like my dad's a politician and I grew up with this or anything.” He also asserted in a tweet that “Obama didn’t make the call to kill Osama ... That was the intelligence committee” with the hashtag “I would know.”

In reference to presidential election debates last year, Joey Heck wrote that “Romney raped Obama” in a debate and made him “his slave.” During another debate, he tweeted “crack that whip Romney.”

Joey Heck also appears to have benefited from his parents’ status, noting that he got a job making $25 an hour with a “company for like voting stuff” because “my mom is friends with the guy so he offered me a job.”

Although others found many of the tweets to be disrespectful, Joey Heck tweeted that “I never have and never will wear a Rosary as an accessory.” He added the hashtag “disrespectful” to the tweet.