State senator who posted about Trump assassination apologizes, but refuses to step down

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called for Chappelle-Nadal to resign.

ByABC News
August 21, 2017, 7:03 AM

— -- A Missouri state senator who sparked outrage last week after she made a Facebook post about President Trump being assassinated apologized on Sunday but refused to step down.

“President Trump I apologize to you and your family,” Maria Chappelle-Nadal, an African American Democrat, said during a press conference at a Ferguson church on Sunday. "I made a mistake, and I'm owning up to it. And I'm not ever going to make a mistake like that again."

She asked media outlets to not publish the news conference's location ahead of time because she said she received death threats over the remarks, according to The Associated Press.

Chappelle-Nadal made the controversial comments in a since-deleted Facebook post on Thursday, in which she wrote "I hope Trump is assassinated!"

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and Lt. Gov. Mike Parson -- both Republicans -- said she should resign in the wake of the post, but Chappelle-Nadal said she has no plans on doing so.

"You know, what I'm reminded of is that we're all human," Chappelle-Nadal said Sunday. “I have learned my lesson. My judge and my jury is my Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Chappelle-Nadal, who joined the state Senate in 2010, said she made the post out of frustration stemming from the president’s response to a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this month for which he said “both sides” were responsible.

Chappelle-Nadal said she was questioned by the U.S. Secret Service, which said it was looking into her comments. She later told The Associated Press that the Secret Service know that she "had no intentions of hurting anyone or trying to get other people to hurt anyone at all."

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