An aide to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul who spent years working as a radio shock jock has resigned because of some of his past comments, including one that President Abraham Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth's heart was "in the right place."
Paul, a Kentucky Republican and potential presidential candidate in 2016, told reporters in Louisville on Monday that some of Jack Hunter's past comments had become a distraction and that "it just wasn't going to work."
Paul said Hunter's departure was a mutual decision. Paul confirmed the departure after a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Louisville.
Hunter, known as the "Southern Avenger" while working in radio, was Paul's director of social media and helped him write the 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington.
