A conservative radio talk show host tapped to be chief of staff for an incoming Florida congressman stepped down Thursday from her congressional job, a day after 300 schools were locked down when a threat was linked to her show, the Associated Press reports. Joyce Kaufman announced on her live show that she would not be Republican U.S. Rep.-elect Allen West’s aide because she wanted to avoid any repercussions against him for her statements. Kaufman is known for making controversial pronouncements on her show and told a recent tea party rally that if “ballots don’t work, bullets will.”
“Sometimes I have a big mouth,” she said on her Thursday show. “Sometimes I say things that I wish I had either said differently or not said at all. I think that’s part of my charm. It also gets people in a lot of trouble.”
Kaufman, 56, has been on South Florida radio for nearly 20 years. She “considers herself fiercely independent and is not ashamed of putting America first, like real liberals used to and our weak-kneed politicians and some so-called conservatives claim to,” according to the radio station’s biography. She also carries a .357 magnum…