A southeast Colorado Republican appointed this week to a vacant seat in the state legislature questions if former President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. and has criticized African Americans and Muslims on her Facebook page, actions that have garnered pushback from top state party officials.

Speaking to The Denver Post, Judy Reyher, of Swink, also said that “the black community and the Democrats are the most racist group of people that exist,” and that black people “hate white people with a passion.”

Reyher says her Facebook comments have been taken out of context by Democrats and that liberals are out to get her and label her as a racist so that they can win her seat.

“I’m not going to be painted into what they consider their corner,” she told The Post. “Nothing that I have posted has been against Muslims. It’s been against the terrorists. Nothing that I have posted is anywhere near racist. That has become the game word of the Democrat community, to slay anybody that gets in their way. I am in a seat that they are targeting.”

Top state Republicans however pushed back on her posts and comments.

State GOP chairman Jeff Hays has called Reyher and “expressed his displeasure and disagreement in no uncertain terms,” according to Daniel Cole, a party spokesman.

“I’m disinclined to stand in public judgment of legislators’ comments,” Hays said in a statement to The Post. “Making myself the arbiter of controversial statements, however ridiculous or offensive, would set a bad precedent and distract from the chairman’s primary mission. I will repeat what my administration has said before, which is that legislators speak for themselves and their constituents, not for the party.”

Assistant House Minority Leader Cole Wist, a Centennial Republican, noted that neither he nor other lawmakers are involved in vacancy appointments such as Reyher’s, but he said that “racism and bigotry are absolutely wrong.”

“While we do not supervise or control our members’ statements on social media, we always encourage professionalism and respectful dialogue,” Wist said in a written statement. “We leave it to constituents to make the judgment call regarding whether a member’s performance meets this standard.”

Reyher, whose social media postings have come under fire before, was appointed Monday night to the seat representing the state’s 47th House district, which spans Pueblo, Fremont and Otero counties, after it was vacated by Clarice Navarro, of Pueblo, who is joining the Trump administration. Before that, Reyher served as chair of the Otero County Republican Party.

On her Facebook page, Reyher has reposted a meme questioning why Muslims come to the U.S. if they “hate pork, beer, bikinis, Jesus and freedom of speech.” Another that she shared said: “White Irish slaves were treated worse than any other race in the U.S. When was the last time you heard an Irishman (complaining) how the world owes them a living?”

Regarding Muslims, Reyher told The Post: “If they hate everything we stand for, what the hell they doing here other than to destroy us as a country?”

She also questioned whether Obama was born in the U.S., a debunked assertion that has been called racist.

“It’s never been proven that he was born in the United States,” she said. “Six months later they conjure up a birth certificate, and we’re all supposed to fall for it. It would take me five minutes to come up with mine.”

Reyher says nothing she has said about Obama has had anything to do with race — “I hated the black half of Obama as much as I hated the white half” — and that she doesn’t have blanket beliefs about any group of people.

“I just am not going to stand for this stuff being thrown at me because they don’t like me,” she said. “… We’re not mistreating anyone.”

A local vacancy committee voted 6-5 to have Reyher fill Navarro’s seat. Reyher bested Tamra Axworthy of Pueblo, who is appealing.

Reyher is set to serve out the rest of Navarro’s term, which expires in about a year.