A prominent right-wing social media account named a California Lutheran University professor for online comments about an assassination attempt on Trump, but both the educator and the school said the post was fake.
Police are investigating after Libs of TikTok wrongly suggested exercise science professor Louise Kelly made “inappropriate and intolerable” comments, the school said.
On Monday, the Liberal Party’s X account retweeted the image first posted by a separate, less followed account. The photos appeared to show Kelly commenting on Facebook that she hoped former President Trump would be killed in a future assassination attempt and that she would kill him herself if she was “not too far away.”
Kelly said she never made those comments, according to Cal Lutheran spokesman Mark Berry, who added that upon closer inspection, both the professor and the university discovered that the image with the comments had been doctored.
TikTok’s Libs tagged Cal Lutheran and the Secret Service in its post, writing “Hi @CalLutheran, is this one of your employees?” above the original social media post. As of Wednesday evening, Libs’ post gained It was viewed 1.3 million times and sparked outrage online and in real life. The Ventura County Republican Party on Tuesday called for Kelly’s firing, citing “social media reports.”
In a statement on social platform
“California Lutheran has also communicated with local authorities regarding this egregious behavior and subsequent comments directed at Professor Kelly and the institution,” the statement read.
Berry said Kelly was not interviewed.
TikTok’s Libs, run by a woman named Chaya Raichik, posts right-wing and anti-trans content. The account has been an “agenda-setter for right-wing online discourse,” according to a 2022 Washington Post profile.
An email seeking comment sent to two addresses listed on Libs of TikTok’s account did not immediately elicit a response.
After issuing a press release Tuesday calling for Kelly’s firing, the Ventura Republican issued a second press release later in the day. In the letter, executive director Joe Piechowski said the party had received a response from the Lutheran church and “based on what they have told us, I look forward to seeing the results of the police investigation and bringing the perpetrators to justice.” Bring him to justice.
