A University of Memphis professor is facing backlash for an insensitive tweet to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee about his daughter, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“If she froze to death, she wouldn’t be missed,” clinical assistant professor Judy Cole wrote in response to Mr. Huckabee’s tweet Saturday praising a U.S. Army pilot who gave Mrs. Sanders his jacket during a South Korea visit with President Trump.

Mr. Huckabee called out the woman as a professor at the University of Memphis and said he felt sorry for her students.

“Woman teaches nursing at @uofmemphis and wishes my daughter would die,” he responded. “I feel sorry for someone so hateful and vicious. Poor woman makes Nurse Ratched look like Mother Teresa! How angry and bitter is a person who says that? Sad for your students and for you.”

Woman teaches nursing at @uofmemphis and wishes my daughter would die. I feel sorry for someone so hateful and vicious. Poor woman makes Nurse Ratched look like Mother Teresa! How angry and bitter is a person who says that? Sad for your students and for you. https://t.co/4WgnWRKti1 — Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) November 11, 2017

Many social media users called for Ms. Cole to be fired for the tweet, which has since been deleted, but several students who spoke to The Commercial Appeal said she was a great teacher who deserved a second chance.

Ms. Cole told local ABC affiliate WATN that the backlash had gotten out of hand and she was concerned for her job.

“I really don’t want to talk about this,” she said. “This has gotten blown out of proportion. I talked with my attorney a little while ago.”

The university said it was investigating the matter.

“The University of Memphis has been made aware of personal comments made on social media by a current faculty member of the Loewenberg College of Nursing,” the school said in a statement. “These statements do not represent the values of the University of Memphis or the values of the Loewenberg College of Nursing. This matter is being fully investigated in accordance with UofM policies.”

Mr. Huckabee said he was “stunned” by Ms. Cole’s comments.

“I was stunned that a University nursing professor would wish a young mother of 3 to die, especially when that young mother was my daughter,” he told WATN. “I know people have strong political views, but that level of hate and vile is shocking, but especially from someone who is educated and supposed to teach healing. I didn’t shame anyone — the person sending the tweet shamed herself, her profession, and her employer with such a vicious and bitter comment.”

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