Lincoln-hating GOP lawmaker: Confederate monument vandals should be 'hung from a tall tree'

A Republican state lawmaker in Missouri is facing calls to resign after he endorsed hanging vandals who defaced a Confederate monument.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Missouri Rep. Warren Love, who earlier this year shared an article on Facebook that called Abraham Lincoln a "tyrant," shared an article this week on Facebook about a vandal throwing paint on a Confederate statue.

"This is totally against the law," Love wrote of the vandalism. "I hope they are found & hung from a tall tree with a long rope."

Rep. Shamed Dogan, a black Republican Missouri state lawmaker, quickly condemned the post on his official Twitter feed.

"Vandalizing property is wrong, but hoping for people to be hung/lynched over it?? Way over the line!!” Dogan wrote. “What is wrong with us?"

Stephen Webber, the chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, called for Love to step down for potentially inciting violence.

"This is a call for lynching by a sitting State Representative," Webber tweeted. "Calls for... violence are unacceptable. He needs to resign."

Love, however, denied that he was literally calling for a lynching, and instead said he was using "western" language to express his displeasure at the vandal.

"That was an exaggerated statement that, you know, a lot of times is used in the western world when somebody does a crime or commits theft," he said. "That’s just a western term and I’m very much a western man."