This is not a good look.
Former ESPN personality Jemele Hill is in hot water this week after she seemingly tweeted an assassination reference during Donald Trump’s ‘State of the Union’ address.
During the speech, Hill tweeted “get your hand out of my pocket,” when replying to a Twitter user who hoped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) would interrupt the speech with an outburst. She has since deleted the tweet and for good reason.
The tweet reference was controversial because someone reportedly shouted this at the Audubon Ballroom before Malcolm X was murdered in 1965. That moment was used as a means of a distraction to his bodyguards.
Via Fox News:
It all started when Showtime’s Desus Nice tweeted that he would like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to interrupt Trump’s speech by yelling, “Whose mans is this?”
Hill, who famously called Trump a “white supremacist” in 2017 before her exit from ESPN, is now a writer for The Atlantic. She responded to Nice with her own vision fof what the freshman lawmaker should shout.
“Nah, she gotta yell: GETCHO HAND OUT MY POCKET,” Hill tweeted.
While not everyone picked up on Hill’s comment, some history buffs realized it was a reference to assassination.
“That statement is a reference to what one of Malcolm X’s assassins yelled out before they killed the 1960s civil rights leader,” NewsBusters’ deputy research director Geoffrey Dickens wrote.
[…]
Radio host and author Clay Travis wrote, “So Jemele Hill has moved on from calling the president a white supremacist to now rooting for him to be assassinated during the state of the union. Yikes.”
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On Wednesday evening, Hill apologized and tried to explain. “When I tweeted ‘GETCHO HAND OUT MY POCKET,’ in no way was I suggesting any physical harm to the president. I have used this phrase many times in my Twitter history, always in lighthearted ways, and removed from the context of the movie,” she tweeted.
The Secret Service has been informed of a tweet about President Trump by former ESPN personality Jemele Hill that referenced Malcolm X’s assassination.
“While the Secret Service is aware of the subject’s comments, we cannot confirm or comment on the absence or existence of specific investigations. We can say, however, the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees,” the agency told the Washington Examiner via email.
The Atlantic where Hill currently works at has yet to respond.
