A Democrat Illinois state representative told her Republican colleague that she wanted to poison his family and essentially kill them over a policy issue.
During a debate Tuesday on the Illinois House floor, Democrat state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit said she wanted to infect the water supply to harm GOP state Rep. Peter Breen and his family.
The Democrats abhorrent comments came after Breen raised questions about a bill that would increase spending from $100,000 to $2 million for families who were affected by a Legionnaires’ outbreak at a state-run veteran’s home.
Breen said he didn’t want veterans or their families to suffer, but noted that the substantial increase in spending could pave the way for money-hungry attorneys to bleed the state dry.
“We know the personal injury lawyers are going to make out like bandits, which they tend to do anytime they come to the General Assembly,” Breen said.
Republicans in the House today exploded in anger over the comments of @RepKifowit in which she spoke of Rep Peter Breen's family drinking a stew of Legionella bacteria. Kifowit said she was making a hypothetical comment, not actually wishing harm to Breen's family @ilgop SB-2481 pic.twitter.com/eF6bDOKYIs
— IllinoisChannel (@IllinoisChannel) November 27, 2018
Kifowit, a co-sponsor of the bill, was completely triggered by his comments and threatened his family.
“To the representative from Lombard, I would like to make him a broth of Legionella and pump it into the water system of his loved one so that they can be infected, they can be mistreated, they can sit and suffer by getting aspirin instead of being properly treated and ultimately die,” said Kifowit.
Legionnaires’ disease is a fatal form of pneumonia and is usually found in poorly maintained water systems.
But more importantly, Kifowit saying she wanted to poison Breen’s family and essentially kill them is very serious. Soon after the debate, Breen took to Twitter and called her out for attacking his family.
Kifowit responded by claiming that people were taking her words out of context, and that she didn’t mean she wanted harm on Breen’s family despite suggesting she was going to poison them.
Her excuses and lack of an actual apology was not well received by many.
“How dare you. How dare you concoct up some sort of story about brewing up some batch of Legionella and having him feed it to his family,” GOP state Rep. Jeanne Ives fired back.
“How dare you take the discussion and the debate about a very serious bill that has a huge cost consequence on both sides, both for the victim and the state taxpayers. How dare you take an honest debate about an issue and then wish death on my colleague Peter Breen, his wife and his two adopted kids,” she added.
The Illinois Republican Party also shot back via Twitter and called on Kifowit to resign.
Contrary to @RepKifowit's "clarification," she literally wished death upon Rep. Peter Breen and his family. That is reprehensible. Kifowit must resign. #twill https://t.co/lc17a3m0zM
— IL Republican Party (@ILGOP) November 28, 2018
Sadly, Kifowit’s violent rhetoric has largely been normalized in the Democratic Party.
Several top liberals and Democratic lawmakers have made a habit out of threatening President Donald Trump, his supporters, and Republicans.
UPDATE:
The Illinois House has deleted Kifowit’s comments from the official record.
CBS 2 reports:
The Illinois House took the rare step Wednesday of erasing from its record a Democratic legislator’s remark suggesting she’d like to infect the water supply of a GOP colleague’s loved ones with “a broth of Legionella.”
Rep. Stephanie Kifowit apologized for the indelicate comment she made about Lombard Republican Peter Breen Tuesday during floor debate on legislation involving the deadly Legionnaire’s disease crisis at a Quincy veterans’ home. Legionella is the water-borne bacteria which, when inhaled, can cause the sometimes-fatal, flu-like malady of Legionnaire’s.
“The comments were in poor choice and I did apologize to him personally,” she said.
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