Democratic Missouri Senator: "I Hope Trump Is Assassinated!"

A Missouri state senator, Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-University City), has landed herself in a bit of hot water with with the U.S. Secret Service today after posting, then deleting, a comment on Facebook which read, "I hope Trump is assassinated!" 

Unfortunately, as Chappelle-Nadal should have learned at this point in her life, the internet never forgets and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch managed to get their hands on the post:

Asked about the comment, Chappelle-Nadal later told the Post-Dispatch that she was just "frustrated" and didn"t really mean it.

"I didn"t mean what I put up. Absolutely not. I was very frustrated.  Things have got to change."

That said, and again a lesson Chappelle-Nadal probably should have learned at this point in her life, the Secret Service tends to take threats on the life of the President seriously and has already confirmed they"re investigating the situation.

The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a Facebook post from Missouri state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, in which she stated: "I hope Trump is assassinated!"

The U.S. Secret Service"s St. Louis field office "is looking into this," the office confirmed.

Kristina Schmidt, special agent in charge, told the Post-Dispatch that "hypothetically" in such investigations, agents try to "determine intent, to determine if there was a violation of federal law. If there is, then we refer it to the U.S. Attorney."

"Our primary goal is to determine if there is intent and meaning behind it," Schmidt said.

Meanwhile, Chappelle-Nadal told the Post-Dispatch that her comment was posted in response to "concerns that I am hearing from residents of St. Louis."

In an interview, Chappelle-Nadal said her comment stemmed from frustration over the events in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, in which a white supremacist protester allegedly rammed his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman.

"I put that up on my personal Facebook and I should not have," Chappelle-Nadal said. "It was in response to the concerns that I am hearing from residents of St. Louis. I have deleted it, and it should have been deleted, but there is something way more important that we should be talking about."

Chappelle-Nadal said that in the wake of Charlottesville, "there are people who are afraid of white supremacists, there are people who are having nightmares. there are people who are afraid of going out in the streets. It"s worse than even Ferguson."

So, if we understand the logic flow correctly, Chappelle-Nadal apparently figured that killing President Trump would rid the world of hate groups and simultaneously address all of the concerns of her constituents in St. Louis?

Secret Service Grills Kathy Griffin Over Trump "Severed Head" Stunt

A little more than a month after Kathy Griffin was fired by CNN for posing for a photo holding President Trump’s bloody severed head, Dan Abrams’ Law Newz blog is reporting that the so-called "comedian" was grilled by the US Secret Service over the controversial photoshoot.

While Abrams doesn’t provide details about when and where the interview occurred, he did confirm that the interview lasted for more than an hour, and that it was related to Griffin’s desperate virtue-signaling - to other tolerant liberals - stunt.

News: Kathy Griffin has been interviewed by the Secret Service, in-person, for over an hour....investigation still not closed.

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) July 3, 2017

Griffin’s attorney says the former CNN New Years’ Eve countdown hostess was just exercising her constitutional rights when she posed for the photo:

“She basically exercised her First Amendment rights to tell a joke,” Dmitry Gorin, a criminal defense attorney representing Griffin said. “When you look at everything in the media, all the times entertainers make videos or express themselves in other ways, you’ve never seen an entertainer, let alone a comedian, be subject to a criminal investigation.”

As Abrams notes, it’s unlikely that Griffin will be arrested: There is an exception for free speech that incites violence, but a judge would probably consider Griffin’s photo “crude political hyperbole.” Yet, the investigation is ongoing.

In a teary, nonsensical press conference staged by Griffin a few days after the photo was published, a sobbing Griffin complained that Trump “broke me” and blamed the Trump family for ruining her career and directing a mob of threats and outrage against her.

Intruder Arrested After Entering White House Grounds With Trump Inside

Shortly before midnight last night, with President Trump in residence, Secret Service arrested a backpack-carrying man who breached security by scaling a fence near the south entrance to The White House.

The Washington Post reports, the person scaled a White House fence Friday night and was arrested on the grounds of the presidential residence, according to the U.S. Secret Service.

The incident occurred about 11:38 p.m. on the south grounds of the executive mansion. Uniformed officers with the Secret Service arrested the person without incident, according to a statement.

Authorities said the person was carrying a backpack that was searched. It did not contain any hazardous materials, the Secret Service statement said.

Officials did not identify the person who was arrested. Officers searched the north and south grounds of the White House complex and found nothing.

CNN confirms President Trump, who was in residence at The White House, was made aware of the situation, and The White House was placed under security condition "orange," one of the highest levels of security for the Secret Service.

This appears to be the first incident of President Trump"s term, but as CNN notes, there have been numerous instances of people trespassing on the White House grounds over the last several years.

In one notable instance in 2014, 42-year-old Omar Gonzales, of Copperas Cove, Texas, made it through the north portico doors with a three-and-a-half-inch folding knife in his pants pocket, according to the Secret Service. Gonzalez was apprehended just after making it inside the doors, the Secret Service said. The first family was not at the White House at the time.

In another, the Secret Service apprehended Joseph Caputo, of Stamford, Connecticut, on the North Lawn after he scaled the fence wearing an American flag-like cape while the first family was inside the residence celebrating Thanksgiving.

The White House issued the following statement on the intruder incident:

Secret Service statement on White House grounds intruder incident pic.twitter.com/ZfJgG9XWza

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 11, 2017