Four officials in Oklahoma are in hot water after they were secretly recorded making racist comments about lynching Black people and discussing killing journalists. Now, the state’s governor is calling for them to resign.
The audio from the conversation between four McCurtain County officials was published by the McCurtain Gazette-News over the weekend. According to the paper, it was recorded on March 6 during a Board of Commissioners meeting.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office released a statement on the recording Sunday, sharing that there is no place for racism in any office.
“I am both appalled and disheartened to hear of the horrid comments made by officials in McCurtain County,” Stitt said. “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. I will not stand idly by while this takes place.”
The officials heard in the recordings are McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy, District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings, sheriff’s investigator Alicia Manning, and jail administrator Larry Hendrix, CNN reported.
In his statement, Stitt called for the immediate resignations of all four officials and shared that he will be requesting the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to look into the situation.
According to a report from the Oklahoman, the recording was made hours after Chirs Willingham, a reporter for the Gazette-News, filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office, Manning, and the Board of County Commissioners. In the suit, he alleges they defamed him and violated his civil rights.
The report detailed the recording, saying that Manning is allegedly heard speaking about having to go near the newspaper’s office. In the recording, she said that she was worried about what she might do if she ran into Willingham while going by the office.
“Oh, you’re talking about you can’t control yourself?” Jennings asked Manning, the report said.
“Yeah, I ain’t worried about what he’s gonna do to me. I’m worried about what I might do to him,” Manning responded. “My papaw would have whipped his a--, would have wiped him and used him for toilet paper … if my daddy hadn’t been run over by a vehicle, he would have been down there.”
The group allegedly continued their conversation about killing the journalist, with Jennings saying, “I know where two big, deep holes are if ever need them.” Sheriff Clardy then allegedly said, “I’ve got an excavator.”
Other topics discussed by the group that can be heard in the recording included them discussing lynching and beating Black people, seeming displeased and saying, “It’s not like that no more,” and “They got more rights than we got.”
The McCurtain Gazette-News claims that it obtained the audio legally. However, the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office disagrees. The sheriff’s office shared in a statement that it has launched an investigation into how the recording was obtained and whether or not it was altered.
“Our preliminary information indicates that the media-released audio recording has, in fact, been altered. The motivation for doing so remains unclear at this point. That matter is actively being investigated,” the statement said.
The sheriff’s office also shared that the recording was a violation of the Oklahoma Security of Communications Act.
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office has the recording and is investigating the incident, according to Communications Director Phil Bacharach.
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