Colorado lawmaker Lori Saine celebrated MLK Day by making the ridiculous claim that blacks and whites were lynched “in nearly equal numbers” following Reconstruction.

Speaking on the Colorado House floor on Monday, State Rep. Lori Saine made the claim that blacks and whites were lynched “in nearly equal numbers” following Reconstruction, and went on to insist that the real reason blacks were lynched was not the color of their skin, but because they were Republicans.

The stupid, it burns.

The Greeley Tribune reports

A Colorado representative said black people and white people were lynched in nearly equal numbers for being Republican in the post-Reconstruction era. Rep. Lori Saine, R-Firestone, made the claim on the Colorado House floor Friday, and posted the video to her Facebook page Monday, saying it was in defense of House District 49 Rep. Perry Buck, R-Windsor, who tried to introduce a resolution honoring King.

Speaking on the Colorado House floor, State Rep. Saine complained that she was “barred from introducing a resolution [honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day] because of the color of her skin.” Saine went on to claim that blacks and whites were lynched “in nearly equal numbers” following Reconstruction:

We have come a long way on that arc since the Reconstruction, since whites and blacks alike were in nearly equal numbers lynched for the crime of being Republican.

Rep. Saine posted a video of her remarks to her Facebook page:

And another copy of the video via Twitter in case Saine has the good sense to delete the video from her Facebook page:

FULL VIDEO: Colorado State Representative @lorisaine honors MLK by saying how whites and blacks alike were lynched in “nearly equal” numbers following Reconstruction “for the crime of being republican.” #coleg #copolitics #kdvr #mlk pic.twitter.com/8Xo5EWa81r — Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) January 21, 2019

For the record, Saine is wrong. Perhaps she is being willfully ignorant, or perhaps she is just a simple-minded racist, or perhaps she is both. The truth: Blacks were not lynched for being Republican. Blacks were lynched because they were black. Full stop.

As for the actual history of lynchings during Reconstruction, The Denver Post reports:

According to the NAACP’s history of lynchings, nearly 73 percent of the 4,800 people lynched from 1882 until 1968 were black. It’s possible that some were also Republicans, but they were lynched because of the color of their skin and not their political party…

Bottom line: Lori Saine, an ignorant Colorado lawmaker, makes the ridiculous claim that blacks and whites were lynched “in nearly equal numbers” following Reconstruction “for the crime of being Republican.”