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Jayapal flays GOP silence after Arizona lawmaker’s threat
Jayapal said the lack of response from Arizona’s Republican officials underscores a deeper erosion of democratic norms.
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Malvika Choudhary - Wed, 15, Oct 2025
- 13:03 EDT
- 16
Rep. Pramila Jayapal / Image- X (@RepJayapal)
Indian American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on Oct. 15 condemned Republican leaders for failing to denounce fellow Arizona lawmaker’s call for her execution.
Warning that such silence encourages violent political rhetoric, Jayapal said the lack of response from Arizona’s Republican officials underscores a deeper erosion of democratic norms.
Also Read: CAPAC’s Meng condemns on death threat against Rep. Pramila Jayapal
“For all the calls for civility and de-escalation, not a single Republican elected leader in AZ has spoken out against his dangerous call for me to be hanged or his other violent rhetoric. This should not be normalized. There needs to be accountability NOW,” she wrote on X.
How is this individual still in elected office? For all the calls for civility and de-escalation, not a single Republican elected leader in AZ has spoken out against his dangerous call for me to be hanged or his other violent rhetoric. This should not be normalized. There needs…
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) October 14, 2025
Her remarks followed a now-deleted post by Arizona State Representative John Gillette of Kingman, who said people like Jayapal who “advocate for the overthrow of the American government” should be “tried, convicted and hanged.”
The comment was in response to a March video of Jayapal discussing nonviolent protest training against authoritarianism, not insurrection.
In a statement on Sept. 26, Jayapal had called the remarks “appalling, unacceptable, and dangerous,” describing them as “a call to violence designed to suppress nonviolent democratic organizing.”
She said her workshops, which have trained more than 15,000 people nationwide, draw on the principles of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.
Gillette, a Mohave County Republican and retired Army Reserve command sergeant major, has previously defended Jan. 6 rioters as “political prisoners” and used inflammatory language against Muslims. His latest comments have drawn no condemnation from Arizona Republican leaders.
Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the silence “emboldens violent rhetoric” and urged leaders of all parties to “denounce these threats and embrace one another as equals, deserving of care and respect.”
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