by
Joe Cella
Joe Cella, a former ambassador for Fiji, who is running for state chair of the Michigan Republican Party, said he had to quickly shut down a townhall session Tuesday night on Zoom after it was overtaken by pornographic videos and images.
"At 7:30 this evening, we began hosting a Zoom video conference for Republican delegates to the upcoming State Convention to announce our bold, creative, and detailed plan to Make the Michigan Republican Party great again," said a press release issued by Cella and his co-chair running mate Jessica Barefield. "Within the first three minutes, our video conference was overtaken by graphic pornographic video and images. It was evil. It was sick or wrong."
"This is targeted attack was launched by our enemies. This exemplifies the culture of death that pervades our society. This is an attack on people of faith and the Republican Party."
Cella tells Deadline Detroit that about 100 people were on the Zoom session and it was quickly growing. He said they decided to simply end the session and plan a new one for Thursday evening to prepare for the Michigan GOP convention that begins Friday, Feb. 21.
Cella said he was so offended once the material popped up on the screen that "I just kind of averted my eyes."
He said it's not clear if it was a Republican, Democrat or just someone causing mischief.
"I don't want to assign blame to any party or individual," he said. "I will tell you that our campaign has been a singular focus of very nasty ire from unnamed people."
Cella served as U.S. ambassador to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Tuvalu from 2019-2021 under President Donald Trump.
In 2023 he co-founded the citizen-led Michigan China Economic Security and Review Group. His resume says that he has over 35 years of experience in public service, the private sector, and non-profit work.
