Miami-Dade Republicans and others are pressing for Palmetto Bay Councilman Steve Cody to resign from office after his remarks following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Cody mocked Kirk, in a now deleted Facebook post, saying the 31-year-old’s death is “a fitting sacrifice to our Lords: Smith & Wesson. Hallowed be their names.”
On Friday, state Rep. Juan Carlos Porras, a Miami Republican, gathered outside Palmetto Bay Village Hall to honor Kirk's "life and legacy" and to denounce Cody in demanding he immediately leave office.
“As elected officials, we are held to a higher standard, and obviously you have freedom of speech in the country. You won't go to jail, but that doesn't mean that you won't lose your job” Porras said to WLRN in an interview. “I think Councilman Cody is going to find out soon enough that he's not going to have a lot of allies. Not just in the Republican Party, but I think, in his city and his whole delegation.”
Porras cofounded the first Florida Turning Point USA chapter at Florida International University in 2015 and considered Kirk a close friend.
“The intention of this horrible act — if it was to silence him, they did quite the opposite,” Porras said. “Because of this, there will be not just 100 or a thousand, but there will be countless other Charlie Kirks that will now rise up and take the microphone.”
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State Rep. Omar Blanco, R-Miami, whose legislative district includes Palmetto Bay, blasted Cody at Friday's news conference, saying the remarks represents “a stain on our community.”
“Councilmember Cody’s vile remarks mocking the assassination of Charlie Kirk are shameful, abhorrent, and an embarrassment to public service," Blanco said. "His behavior is not just unbecoming of an elected official, it is a disgrace to the very values that make Palmetto Bay special.”
“For the good of Palmetto Bay, Steve Cody must resign immediately,” Blanco said.
Cody has told CBS4 Miami that he regretted his remarks on social media but said he would not resign.
"If I had thought about it longer, I probably would have just kept that thought to myself," Cody said about his social media post.
He said he’s term-limited and can only serve in office until 2028.
“I intend to serve out the next three-plus years of my term,” he told CBS-4 Miami. “It was something that I regretted doing, that I, only after it was out, that I realized that the pain that it would cause not just to Charlie Kirk's family and friends, but to a much wider community, and that was not my intent.”
The Republican Party of Florida said Cody’s remark was part of a long pattern of behavior as "a bully."
"He has bullied his neighbors, silenced residents, cut off council members mid-sentence, and shut down dissent at every turn. Time and again, he has revealed himself not as a leader, but as a bully drunk on power," Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power said in a statement on Thursday.
Others calling for Cody to step down include Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Palmetto Bay Vice Mayor Mark Merwitzer.
Wrote Uthmeier on X: "If this Facebook post is legitimate, Steve Cody should resign from his position as Palmetto Bay Council member immediately."
In a statement on Thursday, Merwitzer said Cody's "behavior has no place in Florida politics, and frankly, no place in civilized society."
"When you have an elected official mock assassination victims and celebrate political violence, they undermine the very democratic principles they swore to uphold," Merwitzer said.
“This post is not only unbecoming of an elected official, but it goes against everything that this village and basic humanity should stand for," Merwitzer said. "When you celebrate someone's murder, you're attacking the very idea that we can solve our problems through words instead of violence.
"That's not who we are in Palmetto Bay," he added.
