Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) on Monday declined to answer multiple questions about a viral video in which she said that she'd be "on the front row" if she were invited to "a public hanging."

Hyde-Smith has been fielding widespread pushback over the comment, as civil rights advocates have noted Hyde-Smith's use of the phrase "public hanging" is particularly stark in Mississippi, where nearly one-eighth of the U.S. lynchings of African-Americans took place between 1882 and 1968.

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The Mississippi senator on Monday appeared at a news conference with GOP Gov. Phil Bryant to announce an endorsement from an anti-abortion rights group.

Reporters questioned her about the remark, with one saying, "Obviously I'd like to ask the senator about the public hanging comment," according to NBC.

"We put out a statement yesterday and we stand by the statement," Hyde-Smith said.

Hyde-Smith told local outlet the Jackson Free Press over the weekend that the remarks were "an exaggerated expression of regard."

"In a comment on Nov. 2, I referred to accepting an invitation to a speaking engagement," Hyde-Smith told the newspaper. "In referencing the one who invited me, I used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous."

"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

Reporters at the conference asked Hyde-Smith to expand on what she meant and if she would respond to Mississippi's violent history of lynching African-Americans.

She said she had nothing more to add.

Hyde-Smith is running a heated campaign against Democrat Mike Espy, who would be the first black U.S. senator from Mississippi since 1881.

"Those comments that we heard, that were published yesterday, are very disappointing," Espy said in a video posted by Time magazine on Monday. "They are hurtful and they are harmful."

"And they are harmful because they tend to reinforce the stereotypes that have held back our state for so long and that have cost us jobs and harmed our economy," Espy added. "I mean, this is 2018. We are going here in Mississippi into the third decade of the 21st century and we just should not have this."