Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada is denying that he received racist text messages from his chief of staff.
Earlier this week, NewsChannel 5 reported it had obtained texts showing Cade Cothren disparaged African Americans, including using a racial meme in an exchange with Casada. Other texts allegedly show Cothren using a racial epithet and referring to black people as “idiots.”
In an interview with WPLN on Thursday, Casada denied receiving racist texts from Cothren, and does not think Cothren sent them.
“I know Cade intimately, deeply, personally — that is not in his characteristic. He would not do that,” he said.
Casada says the legislature won’t investigate Cothren’s texting because they would’ve been sent from the aide’s private phone.
But the House speaker says the legislature’s IT staff has looked into a separate claim — that Cothren doctored an email to make it look like an activist named Justin Jones broke a no-contact order with the speaker.
Jones was told to stay away from Casada after being charged with assault on Feb. 28. Authorities say Jones threw a to-go cup at the speaker at Casada as he stepped into an elevator.
Cothren originally told the Nashville district attorney that Jones sent an email the next day asking to meet with Casada. In fact, the email was sent four days prior — before the no-contact order was issued.
Casada blames a technological glitch. He says the email was stuck in a filter for several days before his office received it.
The Nashville District Attorney’s office has hired a special prosecutor to look into the discrepancy.
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