Prosecutor's Wife Publicly Calls Herself 'Proud White Nationalist' to Much Backlash

Outrage has erupted over the wife of a county prosecutor in Washington state openly declaring herself a "proud white nationalist" and directing a racial slur towards MSNBC host Joy Reid.

Lesley Haskell, the wife of Republican Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell, expressed her support for bigotry in repeated posts to the right-wing social media network Gab, according to a report published on Thursday by The Inlander. In a statement to the outlet, Larry Haskell insisted that his wife's posts represented views that were "hers alone" and defended her "right to express her thoughts."

A September 2021 post to Lesley Haskell's verified Gab account declared that she was a "proud, white nationalist (NOT supremacist), Patriotice, Constitution-loving, American." While responding to an article from March about Reid tweeting that conservatives secretly long to "openly say the n-word," Haskell wrote that Reid was "the true definition of the word," spelling out the slur.

Other Gab posts from Haskell's account included an image lamenting that "Facebook and Twitter refugees" who did not agree that it was "perfectly OK and legal" to use slurs against people of different races and sexualities were "trying to turn GAB into the sh*thole you just came from."

On Facebook, Haskell reposted an image that complained "Globohomo" was recruiting children. The post also denied the existence of transgender people and declared that "there's no such thing as hate speech."

Haskell also used Facebook to repost a Gab post that said Black people were aiding "the regime" in "destroying heritage America," while warning that the country would be left with "only rap music, Nike shoes, abortions, and Marxist theory."

In an additional Gab post, Haskell explained that she considered herself a "White nationalist" because she was "proud to be White and proud of my nation," while pleading that white people "need to make more White babies" because the "race is dying" in another post.

Social media reactions to the Inlander article included calls for the resignation or removal of Larry Haskell as a prosecutor. The official Twitter account of progressive group Occupy Democrats referred to the controversy while asking followers to retweet if they "THINK THAT HER HUSBAND MUST BE REMOVED FROM HIS POSITION AS A PROSECUTOR."

A tweet from singer-songwriter Ricky Davila maintained that "Lesley Haskell's husband should be forced to resign," while Twitter user @mostwiselatina agreed that Larry Haskell "must resign and do it NOW."

Lesley Haskell appeared to have deleted her Facebook page since the publication of the Inlander article. She has weathered backlash about her objectionable social media posts before, while her husband's political career has remained intact.

Controversy first erupted in 2015 following anti-Muslim posts that included a declaration that she did "not trust muzlims no matter what." She also allegedly posted derogatory comments directed at Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who was then serving as the local NAACP chapter president while pretending to be a Black person, The Inlander reported at the time.

Larry Haskell is seeking reelection this year. The prosecutor maintained that his wife's social media posts had "no influence or bearing" on "the policies, procedures, and decision-making that govern my office" in his statement to The Inlander. Lesley Haskell bragged about her husband's job in at least one social post, describing him as "the last line of conservative armor that the County has."

Newsweek reached out to Larry Haskell's office for comment.