Penn State comms professor calls for assassination of Trump: 'Should've been Lincoln'd'

Responding to a tweet over the weekend, Penn State University's associate professor of communications at the Greater Allegheny campus Zack Furness called for the assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Furness was responding to a tweet Saturday depicting then-President Trump in Puerto Rico, who visited after Hurricane Irma and Maria devastated the island.

"Trump tosses paper towels to Puerto Rican hurricane victims like he's shooting free throws in basketball (2017)," the initial tweet in question reads.

In response, Furness wrote, "Should've been Lincoln’d five minutes later," referring to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Following the Twitter reply, it appears Furness has deleted his main Twitter account.

This isn't the first time that Furness has called for violence.

In late September 2020, Furness wrote a tweet listing several journalists, including The Post Millennial's editor-at-large Andy Ngo, and prominent conservative figures that he would like to "launch" towards the sun.

"I'd like to build an arc and fill it with, Michael Tracey, Andrew Sullivan, Bari Weiss, Andy Ngo, Ian Miles Cheong, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and Fox & Friends. And then launch it toward the sun," Furness wrote on Sept. 9, 2020.

On Penn State University's website, Furness describes himself as an author, researcher, and teacher, per the university's About page.

"My work as both a researcher and a teacher draws upon a web of influences that include communication and cultural studies, cultural geography, feminist and Marxist theory, anarchism, environmentalism, critical pedagogy, history and philosophy of technology, and punk rock," Furness wrote online, adding that he has played in several punk bands throughout the years.

Furness has taught several classes at Penn State University, Greater Allegheny, many of which revolve around the media, music, and communications.

One particular communications class, titled "Gender, Diversity & the Media," explores the cultural, socioeconomic, historical, and political implications of media content, media practices, and media literacy. Course readings and assignments are "designed to help students build deeper understandings of gender, race, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation and class diversity in media," the course description reads. "Communication theory helps explain how media representations impact the human construction of meaning in social relationships, in both the US and throughout the world," according to the course description.