Wallingford: Expulsion unlikely for Democratic senator over assassination comment

Missouri Democratic state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal likely won’t be expelled for commenting on Facebook she hoped President Donald Trump would be assassinated, state Sen. Wayne Wallingford said Monday.

Wallingford said that’s because the Senate cannot expel members during a veto session, which is called solely to address legislation vetoed by the governor. The veto session is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

The Senate could take up the matter in a special session, but the governor has chosen not to call one.

The Legislature could call such a session, but only with approval of 75 percent of House and Senate members, Wallingford said.

“That’s a high hurdle,” he said.

Even if lawmakers voted to convene a special session, it would take a two-thirds vote by the Senate to expel Chappelle-Nadal, he said.

Still, Wallingford said he expects state senators to bring up the issue.

A number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called for Chappelle-Nadal to resign, including Gov. Eric Greitens and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Greitens and Lt. Gov. Mike Parson said earlier this summer the Democratic state senator should resign or be expelled, The Associated Press reported.

In a letter to lawmakers, Parson wrote the expulsion call was “nearly unprecedented.”

The Senate last sought to remove a member in 1945, according to Parson.

But Parson wrote, “It is unacceptable for a public official to call for violence against the president of the United States, and there is no place in the Missouri General Assembly for a legislator who embraces such harmful rhetoric.”

Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard said he plans to offer a resolution to expel Chappelle-Nadal, The AP reported last week.

But Wallingford said Republican leaders in the Senate indicated in a conference call with caucus members Friday the Senate body does not have the legal authority to oust a senator during the veto session.

“Our hands are kind of tied, unfortunately,” Wallingford said.

Wallingford said he and other lawmakers received a four-page letter from Chappelle-Nadal in which she apologized for her Facebook comment.

She wrote she also apologized to Trump in a letter to the White House, Wallingford said.

Chappelle-Nadal said in the letter her comments on Facebook “reminded her that her anger gets the best of her,” according to Wallingford. “She asked for our forgiveness.”

The Cape Girardeau Republican said he accepts her apology and forgives her. But he compared it to a remorseful criminal who still deserves “a certain amount of punishment” for committing the offense.

The 27th District lawmaker said he believes expulsion or at least some type of censure is warranted.

“She committed a federal offense, threatening the president,” he said, “I think it sets a bad precedent if nothing happens.”

He said it should not be a partisan issue.

“If it was done in the previous administration, I would be just as upset that it was done,” he said.

But Republicans have not called for a special session to oust GOP state Rep. Warren Love for his comments on social media in which he stated vandals who defaced a Confederate monument in a national cemetery in Springfield, Missouri, should be “hung from a tall tree with a long rope.”

Parson and Greitens, however, have condemned Love’s comments, as have a number of Democrats.

Greitens has said Love should not be in office, The AP reported.

Like Chappelle-Nadal, Love has said he will not resign.

Wallingford said the issue of Love’s comment arose during the GOP conference call Friday. Senate leaders advised it is up to the Missouri House to deal with its members, Wallingford said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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