A Connecticut state senator is under fire for a poster he held at the No Kings rally this weekend.
State Senator Saud Anwar, a medical doctor from South Windsor, posted a photo of himself holding a sign that said “cholesterol: do your job” with drawings of fast food.
The sign didn’t reference President Donald Trump. However, this weekend’s rallies were largely against the president.
Online condemnation poured in from popular right-wing X accounts like Libs of TikTok, as well as people close to Trump like FOX News host Laura Ingraham and Laura Loomer.
“My old home state of Connecticut,” Ingraham said. “So embarrassing.”
State Senate Republicans have called for Anwar to be removed from his position as chair of the legislature’s Public Health Committee.
“This man is a doctor: He is someone supposedly entrusted with protecting health,” Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding said. “Yet, he just posed, with a wide grin on his face, with a sign wishing death upon the President of the United States."
In a statement to WSHU, Anwar said the poster was a joke, and that Republicans need to focus on health care instead of performative outrage.
“Republicans are furious over a joke, but silent when our democracy, our health care and our planet are under attack,” Anwar said. “The outrage is a performative distraction. If they can’t create ways to be mad about the things that don’t matter, then people will start to realize their positions on things that do matter.”
