Stitt calls for resignations of county officials who reportedly talked about killing journalists, black people

Misty Severi

April 17, 11:47 PM April 17, 11:47 PM

Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) called for the resignation of multiple McCurtain County officials, including the sheriff, after leaked audio revealed inappropriate comments about lynching black people and killing two journalists.

Stitt said he was "appalled" at the conversation and called for the immediate resignations of Sheriff Kevin Clardy, investigator Alicia Manning, Commissioner Mark Jennings, and jail administrator Larry Hendrix.

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“There is simply no place for such hateful rhetoric in the state of Oklahoma, especially by those that serve to represent the community through their respective office,” Stitt said in a statement on Sunday. “I will not stand idly by while this takes place."

The FBI is investigating the sheriff and county officials.

Audio recordings show Clardy, Manning, Jennings, Hendrix, Commissioner Robert Beck, and commissioners’ secretary Heather Carter having a graphic conversation after a March 6 meeting of the county Board of Commissioners, where one official longed for the days of lynching and joked about knowing hit men, according to the McCurtain Gazette-News.

Clardy began the conversation with an anecdote about a local who ran back into a fire to rescue her dogs, claiming that the county wrapped the woman's body “up in tinfoil to preserve the body" and making a joke about barbecuing her body. The conversation then shifted to Jennings's desire for the United States to bring back lynching.

“I’m gonna tell you something,” Jennings allegedly said in the recording. “If it was back in the day, when … Alan Marshton would take a damn black guy and whoop their a** and throw him in the cell? I’d run for f****** sheriff. Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope. But you can’t do that anymore. They got more rights than we got.”

The conversation also shifted into a discussion on hiring two or three hit men to kill two journalists, Chris and Bruce Willingham, who are father and son. Jennings told Manning, who is currently in litigation with Chris Willingham for alleged defamation and civil rights violations, that he knows where there are two holes dug and that he knows a few hitmen who would be quiet about killing the reporters.

Stitt said he has ordered the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to “initiate an investigation to determine whether any illegal conduct has occurred.”

Bruce Willingham, who was responsible for the recording, has turned the full audio over to the FBI and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office, his lawyers told NBC News.

SEE IT: Oklahoma Gov. Stitt bans TikTok, joining GOP governors across the country

Julia Johnson

December 08, 08:06 PM December 08, 08:06 PM

Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) banned the social media app TikTok on state devices by executive order on Thursday.

"No executive branch employee or agency of the State of Oklahoma shall download or use the TikTok application or visit the TikTok website on government networks or government-issued devices, including State-issued cellphones, computers, or any other device capable of internet connectivity, and that TikTok shall be blacklisted from State networks and State-managed devices," reads the order.

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“Maintaining the cybersecurity of state government is necessary to continue to serve and protect Oklahoma citizens and we will not participate in helping the Chinese Communist Party gain access to government information,” Stitt said.

With this move, the governor follows the lead of Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), who set off a domino effect last week when she issued an executive order banning the app from state devices. Since then, GOP Govs. Henry McMaster (SC), Larry Hogan (MD), and Greg Abbott (TX) have taken similar actions.

On Wednesday, Republican Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced a lawsuit against the app, alleging that it deceives and exposes young users to inappropriate content. He further claimed that TikTok violated the state's laws by not properly disclosing the level of access that Chinese employees have to U.S. user data.

“The TikTok app is a malicious and menacing threat unleashed on unsuspecting Indiana consumers by a Chinese company that knows full well the harms it inflicts on users,” Rokita said.

WATCH: Sylvester Stallone opens up on first mob role in Tulsa King

Luke Gentile

November 11, 12:27 PM November 11, 12:27 PM

Hollywood megastar Sylvester Stallone said Friday his role as Oklahoma's godfather in Tulsa King is full of firsts.

The outing as Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a mob capo for New York exiled to Oklahoma, will be the first time the Italian American actor has ventured into the genre.

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"I'd been left out every time," he said. "I remember going in to audition for The Godfather as an extra, one of 250 people at the wedding. ... They said I don't look Italian enough."

In the new Paramount+ series, Stallone's character goes to prison after keeping his mouth shut and is rewarded for his loyalty by being sent to Tulsa, according to the actor.

Stallone compared the character's journey to the exile of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Along with the series being his first mafia-genre project, it is also Stallone's first time acting for television, he said.

"It's much harder," the actor confessed. "It's a real grind."

"For example, the amount of time it took to do this series, I could have done five Rocky sequels back to back. ... You're doing 10 shows. That's an hour each, which is equivalent to five movies ... but no breaks, and you're in Tulsa in the heat."

Tulsa King begins streaming Sunday.

Oklahoma official's GOP major decline shows political efficiency of indigenous land difficulty

Kaelan Deese

July 05, 06:00 AM July 05, 06:00 AM

Oklahoma Legal professional Typical John O'Connor is familiar with how considerations in excess of who has jurisdiction of indigenous lands can swing an election.

O'Connor lost his bid for a comprehensive phrase as Oklahoma's prime regulation enforcement officer on June 28 to Republican challenger Gentner Drummond, an lawyer in personal observe, a rancher, and an Air Drive veteran. O'Connor's reduction arrived about 11 months following staying appointed state legal professional common by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt to change an incumbent who resigned the office environment.

The lawyer normal GOP key was a single of the starkest assessments but about the political potency of an situation that the Supreme Court has wrestled with repeatedly in recent yrs. But it won't be the previous. The issue is likely to arrive up repeatedly in advance of Aug. 28 GOP runoffs for an open up Senate seat and an jap Oklahoma Residence seat most right impacted by the Supreme Court's jurisprudence about tribal lands.

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The Supreme Court's 2020 determination in McGirt v. Oklahoma reinforced that much of Oklahoma was, lawfully, Indian place. The 5-4 ruling intended quite a few crimes were over and above the arrive at of the condition and its guidelines. Then, last 7 days, the Supreme Courtroom, in a 5-4 ruling in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, reinstated a piece of Oklahoma’s pre-McGirt electricity more than this territory by upending the regulation on Indigenous American reservations all through the country.

The rulings have roiled Oklahoma politics. And O'Connor misplaced his bid to keep the legal professional general's business office from a GOP major rival touting himself as a lot more professional-tribe. Drummond, who avoided a runoff by capturing just over 50% of the Republican key vote, argued that he would fortify the state’s connection with tribes in the wake of the McGirt decision.

Oklahoma's inhabitants has about 523,360 Native Us residents, about 13.36% of the statewide inhabitants, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Drummond, in his lawyer basic bid, argued that Oklahomans have earned an attorney standard "who will sit down with our Native brothers and sisters and operate toward a remedy on McGirt."

And in his victory speech on June 28, Drummond touted restoring Oklahoma's romance "with our native pals," which drew praise from tribal leaders.

"We are pleased to see so numerous Oklahoma voters show they have an understanding of the significance of obtaining an legal professional basic who respects tribal sovereignty," explained Choctaw Country of Oklahoma Chief Gary Batton. “We be expecting the subsequent attorney general will be somebody prepared to engage in constructive dialogue with the Tribes as our governments operate with each other to safeguard community basic safety and enforce the law."

Drummond, who lost a 2018 principal runoff race for the similar write-up by just 271 votes, is expected to get his lawyer normal bid in November in this deep pink condition, as is the Republican nominee in the open-seat race to substitute Sen. Jim Inhofe, who, at age 87, is leaving place of work in January 2023 with four a long time still left in his six-calendar year Senate phrase. The same is legitimate for the Republican nominee in the 2nd Congressional District race to swap Rep. Markwayne Mullin, who is seeking the Senate seat. In the race for the jap Oklahoma seat, former state Sen. Josh Brecheen faces condition Rep. Avery Frix for the GOP nomination.

In the Senate contest, Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Country, faces former state Residence Speaker T.W. Shannon, a member of the Chickasaw Country.

Mullin, in a May job interview with the Washington Examiner, explained that as a Property member because 2013, he has spoken with tribal officials "hundreds of periods" about their worries.

"And what they are going to explain to you is that 'Well, we have an open up-door coverage,' but no one's walking by means of the door. So someone's going to have to increase that olive department," Mullin reported in an job interview on May possibly 12.

Shannon, much too, advised the Washington Examiner in May possibly that Indigenous American issues would be a major aspect of his position as a federal legislator.

"Oklahoma has a good heritage that consists of Native Us citizens, and we have a fantastic historical past of doing the job and compacting and locating methods," Shannon stated.

OKLAHOMA SENATE REPUBLICAN Fight HEADS TO RUNOFF Amongst MULLIN AND SHANNON

In both the Senate and Dwelling Republican runoffs, candidates know the Native American vote can be important to winning. It is a political lesson O'Connor observed out the tricky way in his bid for a full time period as Oklahoma attorney general. Drummond's victory could be attributed to his assistance in rural counties, significantly in jap Oklahoma, irrespective of O'Connor's help from voters in two of the state's greatest counties.

"Vote against politicians who think about tribal sovereignty a 'threat,'" Cherokee Nation Principal Main Chuck Hoskin Jr. argued in a late May perhaps op-ed.

Oklahoma theater keeps similar-sex kiss in Lightyear right after promising to rapidly-ahead

Jenny Goldsberry

June 22, 05:49 PM June 22, 05:49 PM

A movie theater in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, has opted to exhibit the exact-intercourse kiss scene in Disney's new film Lightyear soon after it earlier planned to rapid-ahead by the scene.

The 89'er Theater posted a signal on its doorway to notify viewers top up to the Lightyear premiere that the scene would be skipped. Its owner subsequently noted that the movie was rather revealed uninterrupted. The signal was also taken down.

In the film, a supporting character voiced by Uzo Aduba kisses her wife, marking the 1st display screen of passion between exact-sex figures in a Pixar film. The studio has been identified to attribute underlying LGBT themes in earlier films.

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As a end result of the scene, the movie has been banned in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Lightyear went on to earn $51 million at the box office environment in the course of its premiere weekend, powering Jurassic Environment: Dominion, which premiered the weekend before. Globally, it produced $86 million.

Chris Evans, the voice of the titular Excitement Lightyear character, stood by the scene, which was really virtually eradicated, indicating he hopes for a day "in which it is the norm" to consist of exact-sexual intercourse romance.