Rep. Aaron 'Downton Abbey' Schock's aide resigns over racist Facebook posts

Benjamin Cole, now ex-communications director for Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), resigned on Thursday mere hours after his controversial social media musings surfaced.

Earlier in the day, ThinkProgress uncovered Facebook posts in which Cole likened minorities to animals. "So apparently the closing of the National Zoo has forced the animals to conduct their mating rituals on my street," Cole wrote in a post amid the 2013 government shutdown.

It's been a terrible news week for Schock. The congressman came under fire days earlier this week when The Washington Post reported he lavishly decorated his office in an homage to the British period drama Downton Abbey.

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