A Missouri state senator posted on Facebook that she hopes President Trump is assassinated. Her comment, since deleted, acknowledged that such a statement is likely to earn her scrutiny from the Secret Service. And it has.
Not only is state senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-MO) facing a Secret Service probe, but she is also being called upon to resign. Further, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (R) is urging the state legislature to remove Chappelle-Nadal should she refuse to honor the bipartisan calls for her resignation.
Fox News reported on Chappelle-Nadal’s Facebook post:
Democratic state senator in Missouri is facing resignation calls for posting on Facebook Thursday that she hopes President Trump is assassinated.“I hope Trump is assassinated!” state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal wrote.Chappelle-Nadal eventually deleted the post, but a screenshot was saved and shared on Twitter.
Needless to say, such an outrageous statement regarding the assassination of a United States President earned her a Secret Service investigation.
Chappelle-Nadal quickly walked back her statement, stating that she was just expressing her anger and frustration, not actually calling for the assassination of the president.
A Democratic Missouri state senator from University City posted, then quickly deleted, a comment on Facebook saying she hoped President Donald Trump would be assassinated.As a result of Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal’s comment, the U.S. Secret Service’s St. Louis field office is investigating and both Sen. Claire McCaskill and the chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party have called on her to resign.Chappelle-Nadal told The Star that she posted the comment out of frustration with the “trauma and despair” the president is causing with his statements about the events in Charlottesville, Va.“The way I responded this morning was wrong,” she told The Star. “I’m frustrated. Did I mean the statement? No. Am I frustrated? Absolutely. The president is causing damage. He’s causing hate.”Chappelle-Nadal posted the comment on her personal Facebook page, which is not open to the public.“On my personal Facebook, I put up a statement saying that I really hate Trump. He’s causing trauma and nightmares. That was my original post,” she said. “A whole bunch of people responded to that.”Later in the thread, in response to another commenter, she wrote: “I hope Trump is assassinated!”She later deleted the comment.“It was wrong for me to post that,” Chappelle-Nadal said. “But I am not going to shy away from the damage this president is causing.”
It’s worth noting at this point that for millions of Americans, Obama “caused trauma and nightmares” and “caused hate.” In fact, it’s nearly impossible to find an American president who has not done so within his opposition’s ranks and base.
Watch Chappelle-Nadal defend her Facebook comment:
Calling for the assassination of a president, however, is such a problem that even Democrats are calling for Chappelle-Nadal’s removal from office.
The Kansas City Star continues:
Stephen Webber, chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, agreed that Chappelle-Nadal should resign.“State Sen. Chappelle-Nadal’s comments are indefensible,” Webber said. “All sides need to agree that there is no room for suggestions of political violence in America — and the Missouri Democratic Party will absolutely not tolerate calls for the assassination of the president. I believe she should resign.”Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Columbia Democrat, tweeted that Chappelle-Nadal’s “words and sentiments are absolutely unacceptable. Violent rhetoric has no place in our political discourse.”Rep. Shamed Dogan, a St. Louis County Republican, joined in the condemnation of Chappelle-Nadal.“I don’t care what the president says or how mad you are, you don’t call for his assassination,” he posted on Twitter. “Especially if you’re an elected official.”
The calls for Chappelle-Nadal’s removal from office include those of Missouri’s governor.
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens joined calls Friday for state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal to be expelled from the legislature after saying she hopes President Trump is assassinated.
The Republican governor put out a string of tweets noting that lawmakers have called on the Democratic lawmaker to resign and urged the Senate to kick her out if she refuses.
“Senator Chappelle-Nadal said she hopes the President is killed. Republicans and Democrats have called on her to resign,” he wrote. “… Last night, in an interview, she refused to apologize—twice. If she will not resign, the Senate can vote to remove her. I believe they should.”
Chappelle-Nadal, however, remains defiant. She says, “there’s no way in hell that I’m resigning.”
Watch:
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