LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Rep. Cynthia Johnson is under investigation after she posted on social media a response to the many violent, vulgar and racist death threats she’s received.
The video, posted Tuesday night, has quickly gone viral and legislative leadership removed her from her House Oversight Committee assignments Wednesday.
Johnson said she was not inciting violence, but many disagree.
RELATED: Michigan SOS Jocelyn Benson says armed protesters gathered outside her Detroit home
Johnson received multiple death threats after her participation in the House Oversight Committee, where she questioned President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Melissa Carone during a Dec. 2 voting hearing.
Giuliani made claims that Detroit was responsible for 500,000 to 700,000 “illegal” votes despite only 250,138 votes being cast in Detroit for the 2020 U.S. General Election.
Johnson’s video Tuesday was in response to more racist, violent and vulgar threats she received after the hearings aired Monday on CNN.
“Enough is enough,” Johnson said of the threats against her at one point in the video. “For those of you who are soldiers, you know how to do it, do it right. Be in order, make them pay.”
Those words caught the ear of Michigan Republican Party chair Laura Cox, who released the following statement:
Johnson said she couldn’t believe her ears and said Wednesday that she was not inciting violence.
“My soldiers, they are soldiers for Christ, soldiers against racism, soldiers against domestic violence, soldiers against domestic terrorism,” Johnson said.
There are two versions of the video online. In the longer video, she emphasized that she wanted those threatening and other elected officials to exposed and impacted economically and be exposed.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released the following statement regarding the incident:
Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield and Speaker-elect Jason Wentworth released the following statement:
Threats to either Democrats or Republicans are unacceptable and un-American. They’re even more unbecoming of an elected official. Rep. Johnson has been removed from her committee assignments, and we are looking into further disciplinary action as the proper authorities conduct their own investigations.
We have been consistent in our position on this – violence and intimidation is never appropriate in politics. We have said that about threats against Gov. Whitmer, Secretary Benson, Rep. Johnson herself, and others. 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.
Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield and Speaker-elect Jason Wentworth
Michigan officials face threats in wake of election results
As Michigan’s election results sit in the national spotlight officials on both sides of the aisle say the rhetoric has turned dangerous to the point where lawmakers are getting death threats.
That also included a protest Saturday night at the home of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.