Overview

• Gillette wrote on Sept. 25 that Rep. Pramila Jayapal should be “tried convicted and hanged” in response to a March video promoting nonviolent protest.
• X restricted the post under its violent-threats policy after the message drew widespread attention.
• In an interview, Gillette said he “should have said ‘firing squad,’” then issued a press release denying he called for execution while asserting death-penalty claims about treason and insurrection.
• Legal analysis in coverage notes federal law does not make protesting a capital offense and defines treason and insurrection far more narrowly.
• The coalition’s letter to House Speaker Steve Montenegro follows Democratic leaders’ condemnations and cites Gillette’s pattern of inflammatory rhetoric, including an ethics complaint over Islamophobic comments that was dismissed.