A Michigan State Representative broadcast a “warning” to supporters of President Donald Trump, telling them to “be careful” and “walk lightly,” after she apparently received threatening phone messages.
State Rep. Cynthia Johnson (D-Detroit) made a name for herself last week, when she scolded a Republican member of the State House for allowing Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to question witnesses in a hearing on alleged voter fraud. Johnson accused Giuliani’s witnesses of “lying,” objected to them being sworn in, and asked them to spell out their names in an apparent effort to doxx them. In doing so, she angered some right-wingers watching the proceedings at home.
Johnson posted the recordings of a slew of phone calls to Facebook this week, purportedly from callers hurling racial slurs at her and threatening to lynch her.
The Michigan Democrat hit back on Tuesday with a bizarre warning. “To you Trumpers,” she said in a Facebook video. “Walk lightly. We ain’t playing with you. Enough of the shenanigans.”
Michigan Democratic State Rep. Cynthia Johnson threatened @realDonaldTrump supporters in a Facebook live video Tuesday, saying it is a warning message to those who support the president.Read more here: https://t.co/QnUstXelbypic.twitter.com/cWIxH1hXL1
Johnson then cryptically addressed her “soldiers,” telling them “You know how to do it. Do it right. Be in order. Make them pay.”
The video went viral on Wednesday, with conservatives seeing it as a call-out video of sorts. “Clearly such a statement could incite people to violence,” Michigan GOP Chairwoman Laura Cox tweeted.
I am incredibly disturbed by Representative Cynthia Johnson’s deranged Facebook rant. It is reprehensible that an elected official would call on her ‘soldiers’ to make the supporters of an opposing party ‘pay’, and clearly such a statement could incite people to violence. https://t.co/EYNihoUoNE
Clearly Rep. Cynthia Johnson has serious mental issues and is sick in her head. She and other #DemocratsAreDestroyingAmericapic.twitter.com/oHZYFqgm8a
Cynthia Johnson Democrat politician from #Michigan is calling on their “soldiers” to make #Trump supporters “pay”. Direct threat from an elected official”. Is this allowed in #America? What’s going to be done about this? pic.twitter.com/5Kptaagjbm
In a follow-up video on Wednesday, Johnson again called on “soldiers of Christ, soldiers against racism, soldiers against misogyny” to “rise,” without adding any further details.
Johnson may well have been angered by the threatening phone calls, but she wasn’t the first Democrat official to seemingly call on her followers to confront Trump supporters in public.
California Congresswoman Maxine Waters triggered outrage in conservative circles two years ago, when she told her supporters, “If you see anybody from [the Trump administration] in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
Waters, however, received no official reprimand for her words. Johnson was stripped of her committees later on Wednesday, with House Speaker Lee Chatfield stating that she could face “further disciplinary action” after an investigation.
Threats to Democrats or Republicans are unacceptable and un-American. They’re even more unbecoming of an elected official. Rep. CA Johnson has been stripped of her committees and we’re looking into further disciplinary action as the proper authorities conduct their investigation. pic.twitter.com/Y5lTqqmEVI
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