Gov. Kelly Ayotte wants the social media company X to suspend the account of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire for what she says are “repeated violations” of X’s Violent Content Policy.
“This account has openly called for the assasination of elected officials from the New Hampshire Democratic Party, has said it condones murdering elected officials for their policy positions, and most recently threatened a member of House leadership, Ayotte wrote Thursday to Michael O’Herlihy, Head of Safety for X.
Ayotte’s letter is her most recent pushback against a longstanding pattern of caustic social media posts made on the @LPNH X account that have threatened violence against Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky.
The post that triggered Ayotte’s letter targeted House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson.
“New Hampshire will be a better and freer place when@alexissimpsonnh is dead,” the post said. “(Or she could move out before that happens).”
Last Month, Ayotte called for the investigation of a separate post by the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire’s account that appeared to call for the murder of all Democratic elected officials:
“We openly support the assasination of basically every elected democrat in New Hampshire. But if you don’t have the balls to do it then you should probably vote GOP,” that post read.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office has declined to say whether it is investigating the media posts in question, but confirmed last month that prosecutors are aware of them.
“We would not be in a position to comment further at this time,” New Hampshire Department of Justice spokesman Michael Garrity said.
The state Libertarian Party, which is led by Manchester businessman Jeremy Kauffman, was stripped of its national affiliation in May for violating party rules.
Kauffman is a former U.S.Senate candidate, who once helped lead the Free State Project. He is close to several leading state lawmakers including House Majority Leader Jason Obsorne. At an eventearlier this year, in which he announced the creation of a new "Free State Party," Kauffman said that Osborne was serving on the group's board of directors.
In an X post of his own late Wednesday, Osborne criticized the @LPNH posts: “if you were a House member and not just an anonymous account formerly affiliated with an irrelevant political party, I would insist upon your resignation,” Osborne wrote.
After Ayotte called for X to suspend the @LPNH account, Osborne added, “If I were X, I would delete that obnoxious account.”