A staffer for a Democratic congressman from Mississippi was fired for her inflammatory comments saying she hoped the shooter who targeted Donald Trump “wouldn’t miss next time.”
“I don’t condone violence but please get you some shooting lessons so you don’t miss next time ooops that wasn’t me talking,” Jacqueline Marsaw wrote on Facebook Saturday evening, shortly after Trump narrowly avoided being shot in the head during a rally in Pennsylvania.
Marsaw, of Natchez, worked as a field director of Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Natchez Democrat reported.
Marsaw also wrote that the shooting – which killed one rally attendee and critically wounded two others – “couldn’t [have] happened to a nicer fellow,” though she insisted that it was a “staged” incident.
“That’s what your hate speech got you!” she added in a third post, seemingly referring to Trump’s often-controversial takes on social and political issues.
As of Sunday morning, all of the posts had been deleted.
“I got overwhelmed in the moment,” Marsaw told the Natchez Democrat.
“I am a diehard Democrat,” she added.
She deleted her posts after she was instructed to do so by a manager on Thompson’s team, Marsaw explained.
The comments, however, continued to draw backlash online.
“@BennieGThompson should FIRE his field director for condoning the attempted assassination of President @realDonaldTrump!!!” the Mississippi GOP wrote on X alongside screenshots of the comments.
Mississippi Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann echoed calls for Marsaw’s ouster, writing that Thompson should let her go “immediately.”
“With staff like this the poison is deep,” former Republican presidential candidate and House Speaker Newt Gingrich chimed in.
On Sunday afternoon, Thompson confirmed that Marsaw was “no longer in [his] employment,” Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie reported.
Marsaw’s firing came as conservatives decried left-leaning social media users who were celebrating and even making light of the Saturday night shooting.
Some of the tasteless jabs included mock séances summoning the spirit of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth, as well as impassioned cries lamenting that the shooter missed.