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A Mississippi lawmaker apologized Monday for saying the Louisiana leaders who supported the recent 

 "should be LYNCHED!" Karl Oliver, a GOP state representative, had made the comment in a Facebook post this weekend.



The post was later removed, but not before two other state lawmakers liked it, 

By Monday, however, Oliver had second thoughts.


"In an effort to express my passion for preserving all historical monuments, the word 'lynched' was wrong. I am very sorry," the first-term lawmaker said — also in a 

. "It is in no way, ever, an appropriate term. I deeply regret that I chose this word, and I do not condone the actions I referenced, nor do I believe them in my heart. I freely admit my choice of words was horribly wrong, and I humbly ask your forgiveness."
Republican state officials condemned the original post, 

Oliver defeated a 24-year incumbent in 2015. His district includes the community of Money, where 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in 1955.


Oliver is also president and director of Oliver Funeral Home in Winona, Miss., about 90 miles north of Jackson, 

.
The Facebook post came one day after officials 

 of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in New Orleans. It was the fourth taken down after the city council 

The push to remove tributes to the Confederacy gained momentum in 2015 after white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine black parishioners in a church in Charleston, S.C.

After the killing, state lawmakers in South Carolina voted to stop flying the Confederate flag on the grounds of the statehouse. And Alabama's governor also ordered them removed from the state Capitol.


But Mississippi has resisted such calls: It is 

Politics and Government News

Social Issues

Kathy Goldgeier

Author

In a Facebook post over the weekend, Mississippi state Rep. Karl Oliver said New Orleans politicians "should be LYNCHED" for taking down the memorials. He took it back on Monday.

Mississippi lawmaker: Sorry for saying Confederate statue removers 'should be lynched'

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