Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images(YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio) — Donald Trump’s campaign announced the resignation of Kathy Miller, its Mahoning County (Ohio) chairperson on Thursday, after she was quoted in The Guardian as saying that racism did not exist before Barack Obama was elected president.

“Our county chairs are volunteers who signed up to help organize grassroots outreach like door-knocking and phone calls,” said a statement from Trump’s Ohio State Director Bob Paduchik. “They are not spokespeople for the campaign.”

Miller tendered her resignation, which was accepted “in light of [her] inappropriate comments,” Paduchik said.

Miller will be replaced in that role by Tracy Winbush, who a black woman who Paduchik says “has been actively involved in our Mahoning County and statewide campaign.”

The comments were made during a taped interview with The Guardian‘s “Anywhere but Washington” series of election videos. “I don’t think there was any racism until Obama got elected,” she said. “We never had problems like this…Now with the people with the guns, and shooting up neighborhoods, and not being a responsible citizens, that’s a big change, and I think that’s the philosophy that Obama has perpetuated on America.”

“If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years,” she said, “it’s your own fault. You’ve had every opportunity, it was given to you. You’ve had the same schools everybody else went to. You had benefits to go to college that white kids didn’t have. You had all the advantages and didn’t take advantage of it. It’s not our fault, certainly.”

A statement sent on behalf of Miller acknowledged that her comments were “inappropriate.” She also said her resignation as the county chairperson and as an elector to the Electoral College was tendered “to avoid any unnecessary distractions.”

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