Another calamity barreling out of Illinois rep. Aaron Schock's office today: Benjamin Cole, Schock's senior adviser for policy and communications, resigned this afternoon after a series of racially-charged Facebook posts—including one in which he compares black people to zoo animals—were obtained and published by ThinkProgress. In another since-deleted post, Cole writes that he "thinks they should build a mosque on the White House grounds," in an apparent dig at Obama.

Most of the posts gathered by ThinkProgress come from 2013. Here's the post where he compares black people to zoo animals (written during the government shutdown):

That post, ThinkProgress writes, "included a video of a woman, shouting and seemingly engaged in an argument with someone not visible as she walked."

Two more posts from 2013:

BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski got a hold of another, older post by Cole from 2010 in which he claims Obama is Muslim:

As Daily Intel points out, Cole appears to have joined Schock's office in March 2014, with these Facebook posts pre-dating his tenure. But then there's this post from last month:


Cole has since put his Facebook page on lockdown since ThinkProgress' report, but Gawker was able to take a screenshot of his album of cover photos, which appear to exclusively include images of Michelle Obama (save for one photo of his chest):

"I am extremely disappointed by the inexcusable and offensive online comments made by a member of my staff," Schock said in a statement. "I would expect better from any member of my team. Upon learning about them I met with Mr. Cole and he offered his resignation which I have accepted."

[Images via AP, Benjamin Cole's Facebook]