From the state that brought you Jesse Helms
Al Jolson telling the audience, “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet,” in 1927’s The Jazz Singer marked the end of the silent film era. Well, buckle up. The North Carolina that brought you Jesse Helms, the state that elected Christian nationalist Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and made him the 2024 Republican nominee for governor, isn’t done yet.
The state’s Republican primary voters upset their own incumbent superintendent of public instruction, Catherine Truitt, on March 5 and replaced her on the ballot with Michele Morrow.
“Every sign we had said that Catherine Truitt was going to win this election,” political scientist Dr. Chris Cooper told reporters.
Jake Tapper and Andy Kaczynski introduced CNN viewers to Morrow Thursday night (via WRAL):
Michele Morrow, a conservative activist who last week upset the incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction in North Carolina’s Republican primary, expressed support in 2020 for the televised execution of former President Barack Obama and suggested killing then-President-elect Joe Biden.
“Wait a minute, I tell ya,” Jolson said. “You ain’t heard nothin’.”:
In other comments on social media between 2019 and 2021 reviewed by CNN’s KFile, Morrow made disturbing suggestions about executing prominent Democrats for treason, including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other prominent people such as Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates.
WRAL previously reported many of Morrow’s statements. She faces Democrat Mo Green, a career school system administrator, in the statewide superintendent race.
“I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad,” Morrow wrote in a tweet from May 2020, responding to a user sharing a conspiracy theory who suggested sending Obama to prison at Guantanamo Bay. “I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”
In another post in May 2020, she responded to a fake Time Magazine cover that featured art of Obama in an electric chair asking if he should be executed.
“Death to ALL traitors!!” Morrow responded.
In yet another comment, Morrow suggested in December 2020 killing Biden, who at that time was president-elect, and has said he would ask Americans to wear a mask for 100 days.
“Never. We need to follow the Constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!! #JusticeforAmerica,” she wrote.
And QAnon. And adrenochrome.
Morrow has espoused a wide range of extreme views on social media in recent years. Many of her past extreme comments were made on her now-dormant personal Twitter account — which is separate from her campaign account.
Morrow also promoted QAnon slogans and tweeted that the actor Jim Carrey was “… likely searching for adrenochrome” – a reference to a conspiracy theory shared by QAnon believers that celebrities harvest and drink the blood of children to prolong their own lives. Media Matters, a left-leaning publication, was first to report the QAnon tweets.
All together, Morrow tweeted “WWG1WGA” – the slogan that stands for “where we go one, we go all” and is commonly associated with the QAnon conspiracy – more than seven times in 2020.
Oh, yeah. There’s more.
In other comments, Morrow repeatedly shared the false claim that Obama was Muslim, called Islam evil, and expressed belief in a conspiracy theory that tens of thousands of Chinese troops were stationed in Canada to invade the United States to help Joe Biden become president.
“Tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers are already in Canada and probably Mexico waiting for orders to invade,” she wrote on January 8, 2021.
Years ago, Charlie Pierce named us “the newly insane state of North Carolina.” We’ll find out just how insane this November.
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