Yesterday, I told you that Michael Folk, a Republican member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, was in hot water for sticking his foot deep in his mouth. The delegate from Martinsburg, who is also a pilot for United Airlines, took to Twitter to demand that Hillary Clinton be tried and publicly hanged for “treason, murder, and crimes against the US Constitution.”
Folk later claimed that he was only joking about wanting Hillary executed after what sounded like a kangaroo court trial. Well, United doesn’t think this is a laughing matter. On Sunday night, the world’s largest airline announced on Twitter that Folk had been grounded and suspended pending further investigation.
This pilot has been removed from flying pending our investigation. We are appalled by his threatening comments. https://t.co/H1teA2nqsj
— United Airlines (@united) July 17, 2016
United had made its feelings on the issue known loud and clear on Saturday, when it tweeted that “comments advocating harm to anyone” have no place there.
According to Folk’s LinkedIn profile, he has flown for United since 2008, and has been a first officer since 2012. However, he seems to be falling all over himself to keep his day job. In an interview with the AP, he reiterated that all he really wanted was for Hillary to stand trial. He also issued the closest thing we’ve seen yet from him to an apology.”
“It could have been said a little bit better. I regret the tone, and the second part of that tweet. The biggest misconception is that for some reason, everybody thinks I made a death threat, which I did not. Clearly it was not that.”
Sadly, Folk couldn’t leave well enough alone. Maybe he didn’t make a death threat. But he did call for what amounted to a legally-sanctioned lynching–which is really no different than a death threat in moral terms.
There are still calls for Folk to get bounced from his delegate seat as well. The West Virginia Democratic Party, which earlier denounced Folk as unfit to serve, isn’t letting up one inch.
.@WVGOP Del.Folks use of dangerous &hateful rhetoric, threatening the life of another will not #MakeAmericaSafeAgain https://t.co/3z2W5nPCWR
— WV Democratic Party (@wvdemocrats) July 18, 2016
To his credit, state house speaker Tim Armstead unequivocally condemned Folk’s remarks. Armstead, the first Republican to hold the post since 1931–a measure of how blue West Virginia once was–said that while he and his colleagues “have great concerns” about Clinton, “we certainly condemn any calls for violence against her or any other person.”
However, so far there has been no word from state GOP chairman Conrad Lucas or the Republican candidate for governor, State Senate president Bill Cole. Naturally, the West Virginia Democrats want to know why they haven’t said anything.
What about @WVGOP Chair @ConradWV? @BillColeWV? Do you agree with Folk's threatening and dangerous actions? https://t.co/5yLYnyimic
— WV Democratic Party (@wvdemocrats) July 18, 2016
There’s been no word–at least to my knowledge–from the Democrat running for Folk’s delegate seat, Berkeley County sheriff Kenny LeMaster. Perhaps LeMaster is just letting Folk hang himself. It would help if he spoke up, though. It would certainly help make the case that if the people of Martinsburg dump Folk and elect him, they’ll be getting a delegate they can be proud of.
Folk has been a pilot for 16 years–eight at United, and eight before that at commuter airline ExpressJet. If he’s going to have any hope of keeping his day job, he’d better be one hell of a talker as well–and if it were up to me, even that wouldn’t be enough.
