Politics

Socialist Gubernatorial Candidate Gets Caught In Easily-Disprovable Lie

Screenshot/YouTube/Francesca Hong

Leading Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong once publicly claimed that the Senate should be abolished — but now a spokesperson says she never did.

“Abolish the Senate,” Hong, an avowed socialist, said in 2021 in a reply to a tweet about the Senate from Qasim Rashid, a human rights lawyer. The post was still live on X as of Wednesday afternoon.

A spokesperson for Hong’s campaign rejected the accusation that Hong opposed the senate, in a Tuesday comment to Fox News — despite the existence of the five-year-old X post. This came after Republican Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is the favorite to win the GOP gubernatorial nomination, said in a statement following Wisconsin’s Democrat gubernatorial primary debate Tuesday that Hong “has called to abolish the police, prisons, and the U.S. Senate.”

The socialist Democrat did not recall making her February 2021 post and has clarified this fact in recent media interviews, a Hong campaign spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The spokesperson added that Hong made her “Abolish the Senate” post the day after 57 senators voted to convict President Donald Trump for his behavior during the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot — ten votes short of the supermajority required to remove him from office. Hong was reacted in frustration to Trump’s acquittal, per the spokesperson.

“Rep. Hong has never called for abolishing the U.S. Senate. Tiffany cannot produce a single statement where she did, because it doesn’t exist,” the spokesperson told Fox.

Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is leading in the August 11 Wisconsin Democratic primary race for gubernatorial nomination, although many voters are undecided, according to a July poll conducted by Marquette Law School. The poll showed Hong, a state assemblywoman from Madison, with 38% of support, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes with 16% and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley with 7%.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the Wisconsin gubernatorial race as “toss up.” Incumbent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is not seeking reelection and has endorsed Crowley.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from Hong’s campaign which was sent post-publication.