Organizers of a #MeToo rally Saturday in downtown Springfield said they wanted their event to be nonpartisan.

Sarah Bargo told the crowd they invited numerous local Republican politicians to speak at the rally supporting survivors of sexual assault, and only Lynn Morris, R-Ozark, agreed to speak.

Apparently, Morris changed his mind, citing the "extreme left."

Morris had been scheduled to be the third speaker at the event, but organizers say they received Facebook messages from Morris last night about his decision to back out.

The News-Leader reviewed screen shots of the messages, and Bargo read them aloud at the rally.

"Your cause is important and should be important in sexual assault discussions unless it gets hijacked to the extreme left that wants to be uncivil and won’t conduct a fair and calm discussion with all groups all sides," Morris wrote. "Profanity and wanting to castrate and kill white men is extremely barbaric and won’t get those groups anywhere.”

Some in the crowd booed when Bargo read Morris's message. Others just said "wow."

"Wow, is right," Bargo told the crowd. "So I just want to clarify. That's not who we are. We don't advocate castrating and murder. Those comments are very destructive so I'm not going to spend any more time on them and we're going to move on, but I wanted you to know that's what Rep. Lynn Morris said."

The News-Leader reached out to Morris Saturday afternoon but did not immediately hear back.