After death threat to Wichita mayor, Gov. Kelly seeks toning down of anti-mask fervor

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is urging Kansans to tone down anti-mask rhetoric after Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple received a death threat from a man apparently opposed to the city’s COVID-19 restrictions.

“It’s imperative that we turn down the rhetoric — the anti-science, anti-mask rhetoric,” Kelly said Monday. “We see what’s going on, what it has done here with the mayor of Wichita and elsewhere such as Michigan.”

Michigan is where members of a self-appointed militia group are facing charges that they plotted to kidnap and try Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The F.B.I. and Michigan law enforcement have arrested 13 men in connection with a domestic terrorism plot.

“This is serious, and we all need to get on the same page and work together,” Kelly said.