‘I want public executions’: Texas GOP candidate’s extreme posts extend beyond racism

Bo French, the Republican nominee for one of Texas’ most powerful statewide offices, is facing bipartisan criticism over a racist post about the crowd at a University of Texas football game.

Now, a CNN KFile investigation has uncovered since-removed posts from the past six years in which French repeatedly advocated having public executions for political opponents, including former President Barack Obama.

French is running to lead the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s powerful oil and gas industry. His earlier post portrayed South Asian students at the university as “foreigners” displacing Americans.

Although French has stood by that post, prominent Republicans have distanced themselves from his candidacy. Longtime GOP strategist and former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove said he would vote for the Democrat in the race, while Texas Sen. John Cornyn said he would not vote for French.

French has dismissed his detractors as “less conservative” and he did not respond to CNN’s inquiries. The episode is the latest controversy involving French’s provocative rhetoric on immigration, race and religion. Earlier this year, he called for deporting 100 million people and suggested that Republicans embrace Islamophobia.

A CNN KFile review uncovered at least five removed social media posts from February 2025 in which French, using a previous username from his current account, invoked public executions, gallows or hanging. It’s unclear if the posts were deleted by French himself or removed because they violated Twitter’s prior rules against hate speech.

CNN also uncovered other posts in which French called for executions. Those posts came from a since-suspended account that French used during his two failed runs for the Texas statehouse in 2016 and 2018 .

In May 2020, amid Republican backlash to the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, French publicly called for the death penalty for people he described as “Obama conspirators,” invoked death as punishment for Obama himself, referring to the “former president,” and others while he repeatedly used the hashtag #HangEmHigh .

The Trump Justice Department had just moved to drop its prosecution of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who lied to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador in the weeks before Trump took office in 2017. Trump used this to accuse former Obama-era officials of “treason.” The House Intelligence Committee, led by then-Rep. Adam Schiff, had also released dozens of transcripts from its investigation.

“The penalty for treason used to be death. Even for a former president. #HangEmHigh,” wrote French , replying to a post seemingly blaming Obama for the Russian investigation.

“It’s time we drop the hammer on these treasonous bastards and punish them with the full measure of justice. #HangEmHigh,” he wrote in response to a tweet asking if Schiff had been arrested.

The new revelations come as some of the most powerful Republican officials in Texas continue to back French. Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for re-election, and Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate, have both maintained their endorsements of French despite the latest controversy.

French reached the general election after ousting incumbent Railroad Commissioner, Republican Jim Wright in May’s runoff election, despite Wright being backed by Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows. French also won despite his past anti-Muslim rhetoric being condemned by statewide officials like Patrick.

French now faces Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal for a six-year term on the three-member Texas Railroad Commission. The agency no longer regulates railroads despite its name. It has broad authority over the state’s oil and gas industry, including drilling, pipelines and natural gas utilities.

Abbott subsequently endorsed French as the party’s standard bearer for November’s general election. Paxton, after his Democratic opponent for Senate James Talarico challenged him to condemn French, wrote , “I condemn racism in all its forms,” but did not name French or directly address the post. Abbott likewise called French’s post “not my message.”

Yet neither Abbott nor Paxton, who proudly accepted French’s endorsement in May, have said they won’t support French. Abbott and Paxton did not respond to CNN’s inquiries on French’s execution comments, nor did the Texas Republican Party.

The more recent February 2025 tweets include multiple calls for executions against government officials he said were exposed by DOGE – the Elon Musk initiative that embedded staffers throughout federal agencies to look for ways to curtail spending, including by ending various programs and obligations.

French wrote at the time that DOGE, which was an acronym of Department of Government Efficiency, should actually stand for “Dangle Officials Gallows Expeditiously,” adding in other tweets he wanted “more than perp walks” and “public executions,” for government officials he said were exposed by DOGE.

Callaghan O'Hare/Reuters/File

French at the time was chairman of the local Tarrant County Republican Party and was promoting a separate Texas effort modeled on Musk’s DOGE.

Another post called for executing Schiff, now a US senator, for alleged treason. French also responded to a post blaming a federal judge and prosecution for the suicide of a Jan. 6 defendant by writing, “In this scenario, the wrong person was hung.”

It’s unclear if French deleted the posts from February 2025 of if they were removed for violating Twitter’s terms of service, but other posts from French’s account at the time no longer populate when you search in his Twitter account.

Those posts were published under an earlier version of French’s current X username. Archived account records reviewed by CNN’s KFile show that the old and current handles share the same underlying numeric user ID, an identifying account number that does not change when you change your X handle.

French used DOGE’s launch in 2025 to repeatedly call for executions of government officials.

In one exchange from February 2025, when one X user worried about Musk’s “damage” “to the federal government” might not be reversible, another replied, “Uhh yea, that’s the point.” French, responding directly to that comment, escalated it further, writing , “It will really be the point when we have the public executions.”

In yet another tweet from February 2025 on DOGE, French wrote , “I want more than perp walks. I want public executions.”

Six minutes after a post that read, “Good night to everyone who wants to see Adam Schiff in prison,” French seemingly rejected that punishment as not harsh enough.

“No. I want to see public executions for traitors,” he wrote , rejecting imprisonment as sufficient punishment for the senator.

德克萨斯州最有权势的州级职位之一的共和党候选人博·弗伦奇，因在德克萨斯大学橄榄球比赛现场发表种族歧视言论而面临两党批评。

现在，CNN KFile 的一项调查揭露了弗兰奇过去六年里发表的一些已被删除的帖子，在这些帖子中，他多次主张公开处决政治对手，其中包括前总统巴拉克·奥巴马。

弗伦奇正在竞选德克萨斯州铁路委员会主席，该委员会负责监管该州实力雄厚的石油和天然气行业。他早前的帖子将该大学的南亚学生描述为“外国人”，认为他们取代了美国人。

尽管弗伦奇坚持己见，但一些知名的共和党人已经与他的候选资格划清界限。长期担任共和党策略师、前小布什总统顾问的卡尔·罗夫表示，他将投票给民主党候选人，而德克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁则表示他不会投票给弗伦奇。

弗伦奇将批评者斥为“不够保守”，并且没有回应CNN的询问。此次事件是弗伦奇就移民、种族和宗教问题发表煽动性言论引发的最新争议。今年早些时候，他曾呼吁驱逐1亿人，并暗示共和党人应该接受伊斯兰恐惧症。

CNN KFile 的一项调查发现，至少有五条已被删除的社交媒体帖子发布于 2025 年 2 月，其中 French 使用其当前账号之前的用户名，提及了公开处决、绞刑或绞刑。目前尚不清楚这些帖子是 French 本人删除的，还是因为违反了 Twitter 此前禁止仇恨言论的规定而被删除。

CNN还发现了弗伦奇呼吁处决其他罪犯的其他帖子。这些帖子来自一个已被封禁的账户，弗伦奇曾在2016年和2018年两次竞选德克萨斯州议员失败时使用过该账户。

2020 年 5 月，在共和党人强烈反对调查特朗普竞选团队与俄罗斯的关系之际，弗伦奇公开呼吁对那些他称之为“奥巴马阴谋者”的人判处死刑，并援引死刑作为对奥巴马本人的惩罚，称这位“前总统”和其他人，同时反复使用 #HangEmHigh 标签。

特朗普领导的司法部刚刚撤销了对迈克尔·弗林的起诉。弗林是特朗普的前国家安全顾问，他曾就2017年特朗普就职前几周与俄罗斯大使的谈话向联邦调查局撒谎。特朗普以此指控奥巴马时代的官员犯有“叛国罪”。由时任众议员亚当·希夫领导的众议院情报委员会也公布了数十份调查笔录。

“叛国罪的刑罚曾经是死刑。即使是对前总统也是如此。#绞死他们，”弗伦奇在回复一篇似乎将俄罗斯调查归咎于奥巴马的帖子时写道。

“是时候严惩这些叛国混蛋，让他们受到应有的正义惩罚了。#绞死他们，”他在回复一条询问希夫是否被捕的推文时写道。

在这些新爆料出现之际，德克萨斯州一些最有权势的共和党官员仍然继续支持弗伦奇。正在竞选连任的州长格雷格·阿博特和共和党参议员候选人、总检察长肯·帕克斯顿，尽管卷入了最新的争议，但都坚持支持弗伦奇。

在五月份的决选中，弗伦奇击败了现任铁路专员、共和党人吉姆·赖特，成功晋级大选。尽管赖特得到了州长阿博特、副州长丹·帕特里克和众议院议长达斯汀·伯罗斯的支持，弗伦奇依然赢得了选举。此外，弗伦奇过去的反穆斯林言论也遭到了包括帕特里克在内的州级官员的谴责。

弗伦奇现在将与民主党州众议员乔恩·罗森塔尔竞选德克萨斯州铁路委员会三名成员中的一个六年任期席位。尽管名称如此，该机构实际上已不再监管铁路。它对该州的石油和天然气行业拥有广泛的管辖权，包括钻探、管道和天然气公用事业。

阿博特随后公开支持弗伦奇作为该党参加11月大选的候选人。帕克斯顿在民主党参议员竞选对手詹姆斯·塔拉里科要求他谴责弗伦奇后，回应道：“我谴责一切形式的种族主义”，但他并未指名道姓地提及弗伦奇，也没有直接回应弗伦奇的帖子。阿博特也称弗伦奇的帖子“并非我的立场”。

然而，无论是艾伯特还是帕克斯顿（帕克斯顿曾在五月份公开接受弗伦奇的背书），都没有表示不会支持弗伦奇。艾伯特和帕克斯顿没有回应CNN关于弗伦奇死刑言论的询问，德克萨斯州共和党也没有回应。

2025 年 2 月的最新推文中，他多次呼吁处决政府官员，称这些官员是由 DOGE（埃隆·马斯克的一项倡议，该倡议将工作人员派往联邦机构，寻找削减开支的方法，包括终止各种项目和义务）曝光的。

弗伦奇当时写道，DOGE（政府效率部）实际上应该代表“迅速处决官员”，并在其他推文中补充说，他想要的不仅仅是游街示众和“公开处决”，因为他说，DOGE 揭露了政府官员的丑闻。

卡拉汉·奥黑尔/路透社/档案照片

当时，弗伦奇是塔兰特县共和党地方主席，并且正在推动一项以马斯克的 DOGE 为蓝本的德克萨斯州独立项目。

另一篇帖子呼吁处决现任美国参议员希夫，理由是涉嫌叛国。弗伦奇还回应了一篇指责联邦法官和检方导致1月6日被告自杀的帖子，他写道：“在这种情况下，被绞死的人是错的。”

目前尚不清楚 French 是否删除了 2025 年 2 月发布的帖子，还是因为违反了 Twitter 的服务条款而被删除，但当时 French 账号上的其他帖子在 Twitter 上搜索时已不再显示。

这些帖子是用French当前X用户名的早期版本发布的。CNN的KFile查阅的存档账户记录显示，新旧用户名共享同一个底层数字用户ID，这是一个识别账户的号码，即使更改X用户名，该号码也不会改变。

法国利用 DOGE 于 2025 年启动的机会，多次呼吁处决政府官员。

在2025年2月的一次交流中，一位X用户担心马斯克对“联邦政府”造成的“损害”可能无法逆转，另一位用户回复道：“嗯，是的，这就是重点。” French直接回复了这条评论，并进一步升级了争论，写道：“当我们举行公开处决的时候，那才是真正的重点。”

在 2025 年 2 月的另一条关于狗狗币的推文中，弗伦奇写道：“我想要的不只是游街示众，我想要公开处决。”

在发布了“祝所有希望看到亚当·希夫入狱的人晚安”的帖子六分钟后，弗伦奇似乎认为这种惩罚不够严厉。

“不，我希望看到对叛国者执行公开处决，”他写道，认为监禁不足以惩罚这位参议员。