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A Democrat congressional candidate’s history of violent rhetoric is coming under fire after his public vow to “kick the s—” out of senior Donald Trump aide Stephen Miller resurfaced online.
“Stephen Miller needs to be THUMPED! That guy’s a freaking worm. I would be willing to go to jail for – I mean, how much [time] would I get for just cracking him a couple of times?” North Carolina congressional candidate Richard Ojeda said while recording one of his regular “Ojeda LIVE” live streams in March 2022.
“I’d be willing to go to jail to kick the s— out of him,” he added. “I’d be more than happy to find myself in an elevator with him and I’d whoop his a– from the first floor to the fifth floor and be happy to go to jail.”
The Trump administration was quick to denounce the rhetoric.
“Unfortunately, Democrats disgustingly supporting political violence is nothing new,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Fox News Digital. “Neither Stephen Miller nor any other member of the administration is going to back down from delivering on President Trump’s agenda to Make America Great Again. In the meantime, Richard Ojeda should seek help.”
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Speaking in response to the backlash his comments have garnered, Ojeda said that despite his language, he does not believe that violence is the answer.
“The language I used in that video reflects my discontent with how political figures like Steven [sic] Miller are steering the nation I served for 24 years in the U.S. Army. I believe his conduct and the conduct of many who enable him to be a betrayal of our oath that I can not accept,” the Democrat candidate said in a statement he sent to Fox News Digital.
“That said, political violence has no place in our society. I know that better than most. When I first ran for state senate, I was beaten nearly to death on a creek bank simply for putting my name on the ballot in defense of my community. My family wasn’t sure I’d make it out of the ER that night, and I won my seat from a hospital bed. I survived my attack, but as we know many others haven’t. Political violence has spiraled toward darkness in our country and I would not use those same words today.”
Ojeda also pointed to the fact that he grew up around coal miners, people who “talk tough and don’t mince words about how they feel.”
Criticism of Ojeda’s controversial rhetoric comes amid heightened GOP concerns surrounding inflammatory and violent political rhetoric in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and multiple attempted assassinations on President Donald Trump. Even Democrats have warned that “violent words precede violent actions” and that “we should have a culture of condemning any rhetoric that glorifies violence.”
Meanwhile, this week, Virginia’s Democrat candidate for attorney general, Jay Jones, came under fire after text messages surfaced of him saying his Republican colleague should get “two bullets to the head.”
Ojeda is running to represent North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District in the House of Representatives. A veteran who served in the prestigious 82nd Airborne Division, he had a short stint in the West Virginia state Senate before attempting multiple failed runs for Congress at both the House and Senate level. Those runs include two failed bids for the U.S. House in 2014 and 2018, followed by a short-lived run for the presidency that preceded an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2020.
Amid his current race, Ojeda has raised more money than any other Democratic candidate he is facing in the upcoming North Carolina Democratic primary, according to Federal Election Commission records.
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In his comments to Fox News Digital, Ojeda noted that the remarks being referenced are four years old, and they were made “long before” he ever considered running for Congress, even though he had already run three failed bids up to that point. He also reiterated multiple times that he condemns political violence.
“I’ll admit I was angry then, and I’m still angry now. Angry at what people like Stephen Miller are doing to this nation,” Ojeda concluded in his comments to Fox News Digital. “The fact that he holds a place in our history books disgusts me, and I think it disgusts a lot of Americans. Steven Miller is a racist.”
WATCH: LAWMAKERS WRESTLE WITH HOW TO APPROACH HATEFUL POLITICAL RHETORIC IN WAKE OF KIRK ASSASSINATION
Prior to his assassination last month, Kirk warned “assassination culture” was spreading on the left in a post on social media. At the time, months before his death, Kirk’s post cited survey data showing 55% of left-leaning respondents said killing Trump could be justified.
Kirk called the violent momentum a “natural outgrowth of left-wing protest culture,” and accused the left of tolerating “violence and mayhem,” while also slamming “the cowardice” of local prosecutors and school officials for their complicity in promoting the trend of violent attitudes.
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