The chair of the Mississippi Republican Party is asking the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into whether a social media post from District Attorney and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom violated federal law.
In the video, which was posted on the Scott Colom for Senate Facebook page Wednesday evening, Colom claims he is calling his opponent, Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. The voice of a woman, who is not Hyde-Smith, answers, and Colom proceeds to introduce himself and wish her “goodnight.” The Colom campaign noted to The Dispatch on Thursday the video is a parody of a popular TikTok/social media trend where men call someone to tell them goodnight. More than 5.7 million TikTok posts have the hashtag #goodnight.
In the call, Colom proceeds to touch on campaign talking points, including his criticisms of Hyde-Smith. At the end of the call, the woman’s voice says, “Well, goodnight.” Colom responds with “Bless your heart, OK.”
While Colom says in the video he is calling Hyde-Smith and even says at one point, “I can’t believe she answered,” the female voice never identified herself as the senator.
In a complaint letter Thursday to the FBI and DOJ, Republican Party Chairman Mike Hurst raised concerns the video violates Title 18, Section 912 of U.S. Code, which states, “Whoever falsely assumes or pretends to be an officer or employee acting under the authority of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof, and acts as such, or in such pretended character demands or obtains any money, paper, document, or thing of value, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Hurst’s letter calls Colom’s video “unbecoming of a sitting District Attorney” and “a potential federal crime from which Colom is specifically intending to benefit personally and financially” (if he is elected to the Senate).
In a separate prepared statement to media outlets, Hurst called the video “shocking and deeply disturbing” for impersonating Hyde-Smith’s voice.
“Such reckless behavior imperils the very foundation of our Republic, which depends on truth, integrity, and trust in our democratic process,” Hurst wrote.
The Colom campaign asserts parodying political figures is protected political speech under the 1988 Hustler Mag, Inc. v. Falwell Supreme Court decision.
“Cindy Hyde-Smith and her backers are so worried about her re-election that they’ve resorted to bogus complaints about social media parodies, which are core protected First Amendment speech,” a statement from his campaign reads.
The video was still posted to the Colom campaign page as of press time.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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