DENVER – A source in a Colorado Politics story Wednesday about sexual harassment accusations against Sen. Jack Tate was fired Thursday morning over an offensive social media post.

Andrew Knarr, 25, was fired as an aide to Sen. Jim Smallwood, R-Parker, for an offensive posting on Snapchat about the sexual harassment training he received as a result of a series of sexual harassment complaints at the Capitol.

“Mandatory 2 hour sexual harassment training. And they aren’t even gonna show me the proper way to grab a woman’s …,” Knarr wrote in a caption over a selfie. “This is f– gay.”

Democratic operatives began sending the screenshot to Colorado Politics soon after the Snapchat posted.

Knarr on Thursday attributed his lost job to “textbook retaliation by Democrats.”

Smallwood issued a statement.

“Today screenshots of my legislative aide’s Snapchat account were shown to me for the first time, and within minutes I made the decision to dismiss Andrew Knarr,” Smallwood said. “Andrew’s actions were unacceptable and unbecoming of an employee of the Colorado State Senate, and I hope he takes the time to reflect and build upon his experience in his future endeavors.”

Knarr had been the staff aide to Smallwood since the 2017 session began. He said Thursday he didn’t think his future endeavors could include politics because of the Snapchat photo.

“I’m probably done,” he told Colorado Politics.

Knarr said he was fired by Smallwood, but claimed the Senate Republicans “didn’t want to do it.”

Senate President Kevin Grantham provided a statement Thursday afternoon. “Andrew Knarr was Sen. Smallwood’s employee and as his supervisor it was the senator’s sole decision to fire him,” he said. “We fully support Senator Smallwood in this choice.”

Knarr conceded his language was crude, but he thought he was sharing it with friends and didn’t think it should have been a firing offense.

The political climate at the Capitol is charged over the sexual harassment issue. This month the House voted to expel Rep. Steve Lebsock, who switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican just before the vote.

Senate Democrats are trying to force Senate President Kevin Grantham to allow an expulsion hearing on Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, who is accused of slapping a Democratic female aide on the bottom. Both Baumgardner and Tate deny the allegations against them.

Knarr was a personal friend of the Tate accuser during the time in which she said Tate harassed her. He said he didn’t believe her story and said the accuser, an intern, left the job because of squabbles with her Democratic supervisor. The intern worked for a Democratic representative, but sought to work for Republicans after things didn’t work out with the Democrats.

He provided Colorado Politics tweets to support his claim.

Knarr said Wednesday that he only sent the Snapchat to other Republicans. One of those people copied the mugshot of a frowning Knarr with the offensive caption on a separate device to preserve it. Snapchats are temporary and notify the sender if someone who received it saves a screen capture.

“They obviously had an intention of using it later,” Knarr told Colorado Politics.

He said he was being savaged on Twitter as a result of casting doubt on Tate’s accuser, with people calling him a “bro-servative” instead of a conservative.

“I said it,” Knarr said, adding that it came back to bite him.

AN APOLOGY: An email breaking-news alert about this story and an earlier version of this story inadvertently included offensive language.