A Democratic state senator in Missouri who garnered outrage from both sides of the political spectrum over her Facebook post calling for President Donald Trump’s assassination has apologized.
State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal drew many calls for her to resign after she commented, “I hope Trump is assassinated” on Facebook.
She did end up deleting her comment about Trump but a screenshot of it was captured and shared on Twitter, Fox News reported.
But the senator still says she will not step down from her position and apologized at a press conference three days later on Sunday, Aug. 20, after her controversial comment. The conference was streamed live on the Facebook page of the Clayton Times newspaper.
“President Trump I apologize to you and your family,” she said during a press conference at the Wellspring Church in Ferguson, Missouri.
“I also apologize to all the people in Missouri. And I also apologize to my colleagues in the Missouri Legislature for the mistake that I made,” she added.
Chappelle-Nadal also said that she has learned not to make the same mistake again and regretted her actions.
“I made a mistake, and I’m owning up to it. And I’m not ever going to make a mistake like that again. I have learned my lesson,” she told reporters at the conference.
The U.S. Secret Service’s St. Louis field office is currently investigating the senator’s original remarks.
Before Sunday’s apology, the senator only called the post “improper” and did not apologize at all to Trump, the Daily Mail reported.
Political figures who called for her resignation include top Missouri Democrats and Republicans including Missouri Party Chair Stephen Webber, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, and Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens.
“If she will not resign, the Senate can vote to remove her. I believe they should,” Gov. Greitens said on Friday, Fox News reported.
In a statement Lt. Gov. Mike Parson called for the immediate resignation of Chappelle-Nadal on Aug. 17.
“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,” he wrote.
“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,” Parson said.
The senator, who in the past was a prominent voice during the Ferguson protests after the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, said she will not stop fighting.
‘I will continue to fight for issues that are really, really important,’ she said at the conference.
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