Mississippi Senator jokes about enjoying a public hanging

"If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row," Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith said of a supporter who praised her. Hyde-Smith is facing a run-off election; her opponent is a black man.

"If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row"- Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith says in Tupelo, MS after Colin Hutchinson, cattle rancher, praises her.

Hyde-Smith is in a runoff on Nov 27th against Mike Espy. pic.twitter.com/0a9jOEjokr

- Lamar White, Jr. (@LamarWhiteJr) November 11, 2018

"Hyde-Smith's decision to joke about 'hanging,' when the history of African-Americans is marred by countless incidents of this barbarous act, is sick," said NAACP president Derrick Johnson in a statement Sunday. "Any politician seeking to serve as a national voice of the people of Mississippi should know better."

Democrat Mike Espy, whom she'll face in a Nov. 27 runoff election, said the comment had "no place in our political discourse."

In conservative "jokes" about violence, always look for the rope.