Former ESPN journalist Jemele Hill is back in the news. This time she is accused of making a veiled threat on President Trump’s life.
Hill, who now works for The Atlantic, made a reference to Malcolm X’s assassination during Trump’s nationally televised State of the Union Address on Tuesday.
During Trump’s speech, Hill suggested newbie Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should shout “GETCHO HAND OUT MY POCKET!”
The phrase is similar to the one yelled by Malcolm X’s assassins before he was assassinated while giving a speech at a Manhattan church in 1965.
Following the uproar on social media, Hill, an anti-Trump liberal, deleted her tweet and issued an apology. She claimed she never meant to call for violence against a sitting President:
“When I tweeted ‘GETCHO HAND OUT MY POCKET,’ in no way was I suggesting any physical harm to the president. I have used this phrase many times in my Twitter history, always in lighthearted ways, and removed from the context of the movie,” she tweeted.
She added: “Let me be clear: I have often disagreed with many of the president’s policies, his behavior and rhetoric, but I would never call for violence against him, or any person. I apologize for breathing life into such an absurd assumption.”
Let me be clear: I have often disagreed with many of the president’s policies, his behavior and rhetoric, but I would never call for violence against him, or any person. I apologize for breathing life into such an absurd assumption.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) February 7, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0it9c0WndOo
Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
