Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is demanding the resignations of four McCurtain County officials after a newspaper reported the officials allegedly talked about killing two local journalists and also expressed nostalgia for the days when Black people were often lynched, according to multiple news reports.
"I am both appalled and disheartened to hear of the horrid comments made by officials in McCurtain County," said Stitt, a Republican. "I will not stand idly by while this takes place."
The officials' conversation reportedly came after a public meeting March 6. The reports say the conversation was picked up by a recording device left by the McCurtain Gazette-News. The newspaper published parts of the conversation.
Bruce Willingham, the newspaper's publisher, and his son, Chris Willingham, who writes for the paper, were the subjects of the remarks about killing reporters, the newspaper said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Stitt, who called for an investigation, wants McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy, Commissioner Mark Jennings, sheriff's investigator Alicia Manning and Larry Hendrix, the jail administrator, to resign. They were identified by the Gazette-News as being in the same room during the time of the recording.
Robert Beck, one of the county's three commissioners, said he was in the room when the other officials made the remarks that were quoted in the Gazette-News.
"I was finishing up signing my papers and taking care of county business," he said. "It's just a bad deal."
The newspaper reported that in the section of the recordings, officials are heard talking about hiring hit men and using deep holes to hide the bodies of the two journalists. The Wall Street Journal said it reviewed the recording.
A person can be heard on the recording saying he would run for sheriff "if it was back in the day when" someone would "take a damn Black guy and whoop their a** and throw him in the cell."
"Well, it's not like that no more," another person responds in the recording.
"I know. Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope. But you can't do that anymore. They got more rights than we got," one person is heard saying in the recording.
Stitt said he has ordered the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to "initiate an investigation to determine whether any illegal conduct has occurred," the Washington Examiner reported.
The Gazette-News reported that the audio has also been turned over to the FBI.
The sheriff, Jennings, Hendrix, and Manning couldn't be reached for comment, according to the Journal.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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