Michele Morrow won the GOP primary for North Carolina superintendent of public instruction earlier this month, and she’s now facing scrutiny for her calls to kill prominent Democrats, as well as for her support for the outlandish QAnon conspiracy theory.
Her defense? She was just joking, and her words were taken out of context.
“The dysfunctional media is trying to create ‘gotcha moments’ out of old comments taken out of context, made in jest, or never made in the first place,” she posted on X, sharing a video of her trying to explain away her extreme statements.
Those “gotcha moments” include a 2020 Twitter post, in which she said she wanted “a Pay Per View of [former President Barack Obama] in front of the firing squad.”
“We could make some money back from televising his death,” she wrote.
“Death to ALL traitors!!” she wrote in another tweet in response to a picture of Obama in an electric chair.
In a December 2020 tweet, she called for the death of then-President-elect Joe Biden when he asked people to wear masks during the early months of COVID-19.
“Never. We need to follow the Constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!! #JusticeforAmerica,” she wrote.
In addition to calling for the deaths of Obama and Biden, in 2019 she called for the death of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) – who is Black and Muslim – for “treason.”
Omar “and her other law-hating Dems must be getting a little nervous. Are they just realizing the punishment for treason is death?!?” she wrote.
Morrow also wrote about North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) responses to COVID-19 in 2020 and used the hashtags #PrisonTimeforFederalCrime and #DeathToTraitors.
She even once attacked actor Jim Carrey, saying he was “likely searching for adrenochrome.” The QAnon conspiracy theory says that there is a secret, international cabal of Satanic pedophiles made up of powerful Democratic and Hollywood figures that Donald Trump is secretly fighting to dismantle. In some versions of the conspiracy theory, the cabal is harvesting adrenochrome, a psychoactive drug that they claim is taken from tortured and murdered children after they are sacrificed to Satan.
But now Morrow is focused on calling Democrats “radical.”
“I’m facing the most radical extremist the Democrats have ever run for superintendent in the history of North Carolina,” she claimed in the video intended to respond to her social posts getting attention in the media. “My opponent spent six years leading a progressive organization that funded efforts to destroy families, public schools, and everyone’s safety in this state,” she continued.
Her opponent, Democrat Mo Green, has served as the executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, a North Carolina nonprofit that gives millions of dollars a year to smaller organizations in the state that work on issues like affordable housing, education, and the environment.
Morrow’s language around “gotcha moments” echoes her confrontation with CNN correspondent Shimon Prokupecz last week. Prokupecz questioned her about her previous comments, and initially attempted to avoid answering before she began criticizing him for “tricking” her.
“Everyone is so done with the gotcha moments,” she said.
“This is not a gotcha,” Prokupecz replied. “These are your own words, ma’am… you have expressed that the former president-“
“How do you know?” she asked, even though her social media posts were public. Then she started discussing “the indoctrination of children by teachers” instead of addressing whether she still supported her previous statements.
