NEW ORLEANS – A Mississippi State Legislator who called for supporters of the removal of Confederate-era monuments to be lynched has removed the original post and issued an apology.

In a Facebook message dated May 20 at 7:29 p.m., Karl Oliver, a Republican who represents Money, Mississippi, called the destruction of Confederate-era monuments “both heinous and horrific.”

“If the, and I use this term loosely, ‘leadership’ of Louisiana wishes to, in a Nazi-ish fashion, burn books or destroy monuments of our history, they should be lynched!” Oliver wrote.

Two days later, in a Facebook post dated May 22 at 11:09 a.m., Oliver backtracked on his incendiary comments, which he described as “an effort to express my passion for preserving all historical monuments.”

The lynching reference, Oliver said, was wrong.

“I am very sorry,” he wrote. “It is in no way, ever, an appropriate term. I deeply regret that I chose this word, and I do not condone the actions I referenced, nor do I believe them in my heart. I freely admit my choice of words was horribly wrong, and I humbly ask your forgiveness.”

Many comments followed Oliver’s apology, including several that referenced one of the most famous lynching cases in American history, the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in the city of Money, which Oliver represents.

Read Oliver’s apology below: