Maddox rejects call for resignation

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) — Kentucky House democrats are calling on their republican counterparts to censure a representative they say set the stage for Sunday’s rally when protesters hung a likeness of the governor from a tree.

Representative Savannah Maddox of Dry Ridge is turning the blame back on democrats. We spoke with her before she knew House minority leaders were calling for her resignation, only when she knew the Kentucky Democratic Party was.

“I think that this is a concerted effort on behalf of the Kentucky Democratic Party in conjunction with Governor Beshear to deflect from the fact that his policy agenda is hurting the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” says Rep. Maddox.

House democrats say statements from some of their republican counterparts aren’t enough.

They want more, particularly from Maddox.

“Representative Maddox has been, for whatever reason, has been the most forefront at these rallies,” says House Minority Leader Joni Jenkins.

The Democratic Party is calling on her to resign and these representatives want her formally reprimanded when the House is back in session.

They say her statements at rallies in the last month helped embolden the protesters that hung a likeness of the governor Sunday from a tree.

“I call on Rep. Maddox to renounce her harmful words of hate and to apologize for her role in this distasteful display of intolerance,” says Rep. Jenkins.

Again, we spoke to Maddox when she only knew the Democratic Party wanted her to resign.

“I will in no way shape or form entertain anything of that notion because I have worked very hard to give Kentuckians a voice,” says Rep. Maddox.

Maddox says her intention in attending rallies was never this.

She says she won’t take the blame and that the protesters that hung an effigy are only hampering her efforts not helping.

“No one could have foreseen that any member of a previous rally would have engaged in an action like that and it’s simply not possible to have known that that would transpire,” says Maddox, earlier Wednesday.

But democrats say Maddox should’ve known.

“There darn well should be accountability. There are consequences to the words you say when you lead a group of people,” says House Minority Whip Angie Hatton.