The St. Louis Post Dispatch is reporting that Missouri state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Democrat from University City, posted a comment on Facebook Thursday morning expressing her desire that President Donald Trump be assassinated. The conversation was quickly deleted, but the Post-Dispatch, to its credit, preserved a screenshot before it was.
This is not fake news. Chappelle-Nadal confirmed to the Post-Dispatch that she had, in fact, written the threat in response to a Facebook friend before deleting it. “I didn’t mean what I put up. Absolutely not,” the senator protested after the fact. “I was very frustrated. Things have got to change.” It is likely that things will change very quickly for Chappelle-Nadal.
“There are people who are afraid of white supremacists,” said Chappelle-Nadal, spinning, one suspects, to keep her job. “There are people who are having nightmares. There are people who are afraid of going out in the streets. It’s worse than even Ferguson.” To the degree that Chappelle-Nadal believes what she is saying, it is a testament to the power of the media to create a mania fully unrooted in reality.
Communicating with Chappelle-Nadal was a fellow named Christopher Gagne who identifies himself as an “investigative journalist covering police misconduct and shootings.” On Facebook, the left wing activist boasts, “I am a Freedom Fighter. It’s in my blood, my DNA. I live to help others. Our fight continues.” The conversation went as follows.
GAGNE: “But, what I posted earlier, I truly believe will happen, sooner … not later.”
GAGNE: “Damn, now I’ll probably get a visit from the secret service smdh.”
CHAPPELLE-NADAL: “No. I will. I hope Trump is assassinated!”
“SMDH” means “shaking my damn head.” Gagne later explained to the Post-Dispatch that what he was referring to was his belief that that Vice President Mike Pence would use the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to have Trump removed from office. Whether the Secret Service believes that is another story. About Chappelle-Nadal’s intent, there is no ambiguity.
