Missouri State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, who expressed wishes for President Trump’s assassination in a now-deleted Facebook post and resisted calls by Democrats and Republicans to resign, now faces expulsion if she does not step down.
“I am not resigning … What I said was wrong, but I am not going to stop talking about what led to that, which is the frustration and anger that many people across America are feeling right now,” Democrat State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“No, I don’t want to see anyone assassinated, but he should not be president, he should be impeached,” Chappelle-Nadal told St. Louis TV station KMOV.
“Lt. Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, traveled to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in Springfield [MO] on Friday to speak to local reporters about Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal’s comment, in which she said, ‘I hope Trump is assassinated!’” the Springfield News-Leader reported.
“We had a sitting senator in the state of Missouri that asked for the president of the United States to be executed, to be assassinated,” Parson said. “And it doesn’t matter what the last name of the president is, whether it be Trump, Obama, Clinton, Bush.”
“The office of the presidency of the United States is much larger than anybody’s last name,” Parson said:
At a press conference on Sunday, Chappelle-Nadal issued a formal apology but stuck by her decision not to step down.
“President Trump I apologize to you and your family,” Chappelle-Nadal said during a press conference at a Ferguson, Missouri, church, ABC reported. “I made a mistake, and I’m owning up to it. And I’m not ever going to make a mistake like that again.”
Parson posted a press release on his website addressing the issue:
“It is a total disgrace for the Senator to call for the assassination of the President or any elected official. I believe she should immediately resign from her position, as this is conduct not befitting of a State Senator or a Missourian,” said Lieutenant Governor Mike Parson. “I will not sit idly by and let this kind of behavior transpire in our state, especially from members of our government. As a veteran of the armed forces, I was personally offended that a person elected to represent Missourians would call for the assassination of our Commander-in-Chief,” Lieutenant Governor Parson said.
Parson, the current president of the Missouri Senate and a former state senator, has asked Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office to provide legal guidance from the Missouri Constitution, which states that two-thirds of the Senate could vote for expulsion of another member.
“An expulsion would be a first for Missouri, Parson said, ‘but if there was ever a time to do it, now is the time,’” the News-Leader reported.
“Given the Republican supermajority and the condemnation of fellow Democrats, it is a real possibility that Chappelle-Nadal would be on the wrong end of an expulsion vote if the senate decides to take that up,” the News-Leader reported.
Several Democratic Missouri lawmakers have also called on Chappelle-Nadal to resign, including Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO).
Breitbart News reported that the Secret Service has confirmed it is investigating Chappelle-Nadal’s Facebook post.
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