After a liberal editorial writer said Republican members of the Michigan House of Representatives should be killed, the state’s speaker of the House is calling for an apology.
“The 109 men and women in the Michigan House of Representatives are hard-working people, dedicated public servants and role models to children in their community,” Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter, R, said in a statement. “But to Stephen Henderson of the Detroit Free Press, they are monsters who deserve to be tortured and killed. … This sort of mentality is pig-headed and wrong, and his statement is appalling. House members deserve an apology from Mr. Henderson, and so do his readers and colleagues.”
Henderson wrote Saturday that GOP members of the Michigan House should be rounded up. “Sew them into burlap sacks with rabid animals, and toss them into the Straits of Mackinac,” Henderson wrote Saturday. “That’s harsh. Maybe. But isn’t that what the Romans or Greeks or some other early practitioners of democracy used to do with solicitous and unprincipled public officials?”
Henderson later claimed on Twitter his words were only hyperbole and not meant to be taken literally, but he didn’t apologize for or retract his column.
Henderson’s initial explosion was over legislation supported by Michigan House Republicans that would reform the struggling Detroit Public Schools district. After weeks of negotiations with the state Senate and others, the legislature passed the state government’s budget Wednesday, including major reforms to Detroit Public Schools.
With the legislating behind him, Cotter was ready to respond to Henderson Thursday. “Mr. Henderson owes us all an apology,” Cotter said, “and he owes his readers a more intelligent debate.”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
