Michigan lawmaker disciplined for warning Trump backers

LANSING » Republican leaders in the Michigan House stripped a Black Democratic lawmaker of her committee assignments Wednesday because she took to social media to warn “Trumpers,” after saying she had received at least one racist threat that she should be lynched.

Rep. Cynthia Johnson, of Detroit, sits on a Gop-led committee that heard baseless allegations of widespread election fraud from President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others last week. Johnson reported getting multiple threats after the hearing, including one in which a Texas man told her to “rot in hell” and threatened to burn several crosses in her yard and hang a noose from her tree.

On Tuesday night, she took to Facebook to warn “you Trumpers. Be careful. Walk lightly. We ain’t playing with you. Enough of the shenanigans. Enough is enough. And for those of you who are soldiers, you know how to do it. Do it right. Be in order. Make them pay.”

House Speaker Lee Chatfield, of Levering, and Speaker- elect Jason Wentworth, of Farwell, said they were exploring further disciplinary action against the first-term legislator, who lost her spot on three committees in the closing days of the two-year session.

“Threats to either Democrats or Republicans are unacceptable and unAmerican. They’re even more unbecoming of an elected official,” they said in a joint statement stating that violence and intimidation is never appropriate in politics. “That applies to threats made toward public officials, and it must also apply when the threats come from public officials. Behavior like this will not be tolerated this term or next.”

Johnson could not be reached for comment. Earlier in the video, she urged people to “be smart” and “hit them in the pocketbook” — an apparent reference to Trump supporters. She said the FBI and state police had identified an Illinois woman who left her a voicemail saying she would post Johnson’s phone number to a million people.