Missouri Senator Should Be Voted Out Over Trump Facebook Comment, Greitens Says

ST. LOUIS, MO — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and Lt. Gov. Mike Parson are calling on state senators to vote Sen. Maria Chapelle-Nadal out of office after she posted and later deleted a comment on Facebook about hoping for President Donald Trump's assassination.

Chappelle-Nadal, a black Democrat, said she was wrong for writing the post Thursday and didn't mean what she said, but has so far refused calls for her resignation. She said she wrote "I hope Trump is assassinated!" in response to a post that suggested Vice President Mike Pence would try to have Trump removed from office. She said she was frustrated with Trump's response to the white supremacist rally and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Numerous top Democratic and Republican officials in the state have urged Chappelle-Nadal to resign, and Greitens and Parson both said Friday that lawmakers should oust her. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The Missouri Constitution says a lawmaker can be expelled upon a two-thirds vote of the elected members of a chamber.The Legislature is not currently in session, but it is scheduled to convene in mid-September to consider veto overrides.

Chappelle-Nadal told The Associated Press: "What I wrote down on my private Facebook page, was it wrong? Absolutely. But I am going to continue to talk about the anger and the frustration that led to that."

Watch: Missouri State Senator: 'I Hope Trump Is Assassinated!'

Among them were Missouri Senate Democratic Leader Gina Walsh, who condemned Chappelle-Nadal's post as "horrible." The chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, Stephen Webber, said the comments were "indefensible" and the party "will absolutely not tolerate calls for the assassination of the president."

"I condemn it. It's outrageous," added Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, the state's senior senator. "And she should resign."

The state Republican party also called for her resignation, but Chappelle-Nadal said she had no intention of doing so.

"I refuse to resign for exercising my First Amendment rights, even though what I said was wrong," she said.

The U.S. Secret Service released a statement saying it looks into all threats against the president, "whether they be direct, implied, or comments in passing."

Chappelle-Nadal, from the St. Louis suburb of University City, said constituents in her predominantly black district are concerned about how Trump blamed "both sides" of the clashes in Charlottesville. The violence included a man slamming his car into people protesting against the white supremacist rally, killing one woman and injuring more than a dozen other people.

"By our president saying things such as he does, supporting white supremacy and the Nazis and KKK, it's causing a lot of trauma," Chappelle-Nadal said.

Chappelle-Nadal was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2010, after serving in the state House for five years.

She has been an outspoken activist while in the Legislature. She was a prominent voice during the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the police killing of Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old resident who was unarmed when fatally shot by an officer in 2014.

By MARGARET STAFFORD, Associated Press

Associated Press writers Jim Salter in St. Louis and Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City contributed to this report.

Photo credit: Jeff Roberson/Associated Press