JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. _ Angry reactions to Missouri stat Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal's Aug. 17 Facebook comment about assassinating a president came within minutes after the story broke.
The Democratic senator had written: "I hope Trump is assassinated!" Most comments from politicians included this message: Resign.
On Wednesday, less than two weeks later, Republican state Rep. Warren Love of Osceola, a town of about 1,000 people in western Missouri, made a controversial Facebook post of his own. He was reacting to vandals who splattered paint on a Confederate monument in the Springfield National Cemetery.
"I hope they are found & hung from a tall tree with a long rope," he wrote.
Critics said he called for a lynching.
He drew similar scorn _ similar, but not the same.
The same Republicans who criticized Chappelle-Nadal were generally slower to respond to Love.
Republican Gov. Eric Greitens, for example, issued a statement the afternoon the Chappelle-Nadal controversy sprung up: "No one should encourage political violence. The senator should resign." The next day, a Friday, he said the Senate should expel Chappelle-Nadal if she did not resign.
This week, Greitens waited almost a full day after Love's comments first ignited social media before issuing a statement.
"First, Sen. Chappelle-Nadal called for POTUS to be assassinated. Now, Rep. Love has called for people in Missouri to be hanged from trees," the governor tweeted at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday. "Leaders in MO need to do better & I don't think the Sen or Rep should be representing the people of MO; both should face same consequences."
The day of Chappelle-Nadal's post, Lt. Gov. Mike Parson, who serves as president of the Senate, issued a statement calling on her to resign. He followed up with a Capitol news conference on noon that Friday, calling for her expulsion if she did not resign.
Parson did not make any comments about Love until after a reporter called his office Thursday.
Minutes later, Parson tweeted this: "Representative Warren Love's recent social media post is unacceptable and inexcusable. Statement to follow."
His statement, issued Thursday afternoon, said it would be up to the House to decide Love's fate. He also said he agreed with Greitens that Love should "face the consequences."
House Speaker Todd Richardson, a Republican, also had been quick to criticize Chappelle-Nadal, saying on Twitter he agreed with a call for her to resign.
His Love comment, sent out at 3 p.m. Thursday, called the representative's post "unacceptable" and an "extremely poor decision" but stopped short of calling for Love to leave the Legislature.
"I am grateful that he has apologized," Richardson said. "Public servants should not and cannot participate in the kind of speech that could motivate others to do harm."
The Missouri Republican Party tweeted its support of Parson's move to expel Chappelle-Nadal. As of Thursday evening, the party had said nothing of Love's post, despite multiple requests for comment.
By contrast, the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus on Thursday called for the "censure and removal" of Love and that the matter be referred to a House ethics panel.
The group had condemned Chappelle-Nadal's comments, but did not call on her to resign.
Rep. Shamed Dogan of Ballwin, the Legislature's only black Republican, was quick to criticize Love on Twitter: "Vandalizing property is wrong, but hoping for people to be hung/lynched over it?? Way over the line!!" Dogan tweeted. "What is wrong with us #moleg?"
In an interview Thursday, Dogan said a reason for the GOP's slow response could be Trump's visit to Springfield, which may have diverted attention from the brewing social media scandal. He did warn against "hair-splitting," saying both lawmakers encouraged political violence.
Dogan also took issue with the "feeding frenzy" in both situations.
"I'm being consistent here," Dogan said. "I don't want to be in a situation where anytime anybody says something stupid online, you know, they've got to quit their job."
Cynthia Frisby, a strategic communications professor at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, said a fundamental tenet in public relations is to address an evolving situation with speed.
"When you turn the other cheek, you're communicating that this doesn't bother me," Frisby said. She said in a world of ever-increasing news immediacy, every hour matters.
In the case of Chappelle-Nadal, her own party was generally quick to react.
"I condemn it. It's outrageous. And she should resign," U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said the afternoon of the Chappelle-Nadal dust-up. After a reporter asked her office for a comment on Love Thursday morning, she responded 15 minutes later via her press team. "Representative Love should resign for his unacceptable comments."
Stephen Webber, chairman of the state Democratic Party, and House Minority Floor Leader Gail McCann Beatty, D-Kansas City, both called on Chappelle-Nadal and Love to resign the day each post was revealed.
Chappelle-Nadal said Thursday she still had no plans to resign, even though Minority Floor Leader Sen. Gina Walsh, D-Bellefontaine Neighbors, recently stripped Chappelle-Nadal of her committee assignments.
"It doesn't stop me from doing my job or making sausage on the Senate floor," Chappelle-Nadal said. "Being in committees is part of the job, but it's not the entirety of the job."
She said she is now in the same camp as Love, a lawmaker who has faced swift backlash for offensive posts on social media.
"It is something that he has to handle and own just like I have had to deal with my own situation," Chappelle-Nadal said. "I am not the one to judge him. What he has said is offensive to a lot of people, just like what I said is offensive to a lot of people."
Love released a statement of his own on Thursday.
"I am deeply sorry for the extremely poor choice of words I used to convey my frustration with the act of vandalism that took place at the Springfield National Cemetery," he said, in part. "I do not in any way support violent or hateful acts toward the perpetrator of the crime."
