A railway conductor on a Tennessee tourist attraction was fired after his comments telling non-Americans they “can leave” were captured on video and went viral on TikTok.
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The “unacceptable” remarks were recorded during the July Fourth holiday on Chattanooga’s popular Incline Railway, a funicular running up the city’s Lookout Mountain.
Charles Scherer and his son, Nathan Scherer, were visiting from Florida for the holiday weekend. Shortly after boarding the railway car, Nathan Scherer told NBC affiliate in Chattanooga WRCB the conductor began making what he described as “disturbing comments.”
The Scherers told WRCB the rest of the ride up the mountain was notably silent, with other passengers appearing uncomfortable after hearing the conductor’s remarks.
During the ride back down, Nathan Scherer decided to pull out his phone and record.
In the video, the conductor addresses passengers over the loudspeaker, saying, “To the very, very few Americans in here, happy Independence Day. To the rest of you, welcome to the greatest country on the face of the planet, and if you disagree, you can leave.”
As the conductor speaks, the video shows other passengers recording as well. Someone can be heard yelling “shut up,” while another passenger appears to react with a concerned expression.
The Scherer family told WRCB the comments were “xenophobic” and “racist.” Charles Scherer said he then sent the video that same day to officials at the agency overseeing the railway, the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority, or CARTA.
“When I sent that, it was probably within 15 minutes I got a response from someone that said, ‘We are taking appropriate action on this, and I apologize,’ so that made me feel really good about CARTA, and about their responsiveness to this,” Charles Scherer told WRCB.
CARTA did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment.
In a July 7 statement to WRCB, CARTA Chief of Staff Scott Wilson, apologized for the conductor’s behavior and said he was fired the same day of the incident.
“Those remarks were unacceptable, and they do not reflect the values of CARTA, the Incline Railway, or the people who work here… It should never have happened,” Wilson said. “For 131 years, the Incline Railway has welcomed visitors from Chattanooga and from around the world.”
CARTA also said the conductor — who was not named in the statement — was not directly employed by the company, but was hired as a seasonal employee through an external contractor.
