A Democratic member of the Illinois House told a Republican colleague in front of other lawmakers she’d like to give him a “broth of Legionella” bacteria to infect and kill his relative, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“To the representative from Lombard, I would like to make him a broth of Legionella and pump it into the water system of his loved one so that they can be infected, they can be mistreated, they can sit and suffer by getting aspirin instead of being properly treated and ultimately die,” state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit said.
Kifowit's remark to state Rep. Peter Breen came before the House voted Tuesday to override outgoing GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a bill to increase the cap the state pays in civil litigation cases from $100,000 to $2 million, the paper said.
The legislation aims to help families of those affected by a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy, the Sun-Times said, adding that 13 residents have died and dozens of others got sick due to the outbreak. Breen questioned the legislation, the paper added.
GOP state Rep. Jeanne Ives jumped in and blasted Kifowit, saying she “essentially wished a death on a Republican floor speaker."
“How dare you. How dare you concoct up some sort of story about brewing up some batch of Legionaire's and having him feed it to his family ... How dare you take an honest debate about an issue and then wish death on my colleague Peter Breen, his wife, and his two adopted kids,” Ives hollered at Kifowit. "It is unbelievable. ... But it's just par for the course. 'Cause this is exactly what we saw in the election cycle."
Ives also called out the "garbage" Democrats "spew into peoples' minds" and for clapping in response to Kifowit's rant.
Prior to the vote, Breen stood up and shouted that Kifowit had wished death on his “f—— family,” the Sun-Times reported.
Kifowit, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, attempted to clarify her statements during the session, the paper said.
“For the fact of it being misrepresented, I’m going to say that what was said earlier is a mischaracterization of what my words were,” Kifowit said on the House floor, the Sun-Times reported. “And for that, for it being misinterpreted, I will apologize. But I will not apologize for what happened to those families. And I will clearly say to all of us, imagine if it was your family.”
But her tune changed just a tad the next day.
"I offer my sincere apology to Representative Peter Breen, his family, and all of my House colleagues for my poor choice of words during a serious discussion on our veterans' health and safety," Kifowit acknowledged Wednesday, according to the Daily Herald. "I would never wish any harm or mortality on anyone's family, including the Breen family."
The Illinois House voted 110-0 Wednesday to expunge Kifowit's statement from the record, the Daily Herald added.
"If the representative had made her statement to me in the parking lot or left it as a phone message at my office, she would be in custody right now," Breen said, according to the Daily Herald. "But because she made her statement on the House floor, her remarks were met with applause instead of handcuffs."
(H/T: The Daily Wire)
