Hearing set for state Rep. Love over controversial comments

One day after the 2018 legislative session kicked off, some lawmakers will have a controversial hearing to face.

The House Ethics Committee will meet Thursday on Warren Love, the state representative that called for the hanging of someone from a tall tree after a Confederate monument in southwest Missouri was vandalized.

It came with a wave of criticism over the fall, in light of the comment coming two weeks after protests and demonstrations in Virginia over Confederate statues.

Love was referred to the House Ethics Committee to determine what will happen to him.

House minority floor leader Gail McCann Beatty has been one of the most vocal critics of Love’s, calling for the ethics hearing.

ABC 17 News asked her what she hopes happens at the hearing. She said she will be at the meeting Thursday to make her case.

Many have tried to connect Love’s comment with what Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal said on Facebook, hoping that someone would kill President Donald Trump.

Beatty pointed out that Chappelle-Nadal was censured and quickly removed from her committee assignments, while no action has been taken against Love.

Beatty said she wants to make her point focused that what he said was wrong.

“I want to make sure the narrative is not about the defacing of a Confederate monument, because that is wrong,” said Beatty. “It’s not what this is about. It’s about the words of a legislator calling for murder.”

Love apologized for his comment, saying he was using old cowboy terms.

The ethics committee agenda said that Love will have a chance to respond at the hearing. It begins at 1 p.m. Thursday.