Stella Tremblay Resigns From New Hampshire Legislature
XA New Hampshire state legislator who drew fire for claiming the Boston Marathon bombing was an inside job has resigned from office.
Reasons for her resignation were not immediately disclosed Thursday. WMUR points out that Tremblay sold her Auburn home for $410,000 earlier this week.
Norelli's spokesman said his office had received Tremblay's letter and forwarded it to House Clerk Karen Wadsworth, per legislative policy. Wadsworth told The Huffington Post that she has custody of the letter but cannot publicly disclose the contents until after she reads it to the full House at a session next Wednesday.
A second-term lawmaker with ties to the tea party, Tremblay first spoke out about the Boston bombing through a post on Glenn Beck's Facebook page, suggesting the federal government was behind the attack. She continued to double down on that claim, including suggesting that bombing victim Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs in the attack, was faking his injuries because he was not "screaming in agony." She later apologized to Bauman, but then said she wanted to visit him in the hospital to see if in fact he had lost his legs.
Tremblay's claims brought condemnation from her colleagues in the legislature, and state Republicans were quick to distance themselves from her.
She had remained under the radar for several weeks, before resurfacing with the Wednesday email calling for a further probe of her claims. In the email, she included links to a series of websites that she said backed up her beliefs.
Tremblay's statements on the marathon bombing were not her first to raise eyebrows. Last year, she emailed the entire legislature with a video that she said showed President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and that she wanted an investigation. The video turned out to be a well-known satire.
Earlier this year, she told a state House committee that former President Woodrow Wilson supported Adolf Hitler, even though Wilson died before Hitler rose to power.
State Democrats were quick to applaud Tremblay's resignation but suggested that Republicans could have done more to push her out.
"Republican Representative Stella TrembIay was an embarrassment to her constituents and to the entire State of New Hampshire, her resignation was long past due," state Democratic Party spokesman Harrell Kirstein said in an email. "Under their leadership the New Hampshire Republican Party has become synonymous with radical tea party extremism, and there has been an epidemic of shockingly inappropriate behavior by New Hampshire Republicans."
State Republicans also indicated pleasure with Tremblay's resignation in a statement.
"The New Hampshire Republican State Committee made it very clear that Representative Tremblay was unfit for public office and not welcome in our party. We are glad to see her go," said state Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Horn.
UPDATE: 5:07 p.m. -- The Huffington Post has obtained a copy of Tremblay's resignation letter, which she used to spell out her thoughts on a variety of issues, including God and the marathon bombing, and to retroactively endorse a 2012 Nazi salute on the state House floor.
In the three-page letter, Tremblay states the official reason for her resignation is her decision to move away from her district in order to spend time with her elderly parents. (Tremblay's full letter can be found here.)
On the Boston Marathon bombing, she writes:
In honor of the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombings, I request and continue to demand a full investigation. Honesty and Truth is what I have requested at the beginning and will continue to do so. I have tried on several occasions to contact Jeff Bauman, to meet with him for a personal visit and to have a sincere discussion. To date, I have not been successful. I continue to pray for blessings of recovery, health and emotional healing on his behalf and those of the other victims. Thank God for internet bloggers and reporters that continue to investigate and update reports; something that does not happen with the major news outlets. Peter Santilli has been a great source of information as well as Veterans today. It is wholesome and healthy to think outside the box and ask pertinent questions, especially when it involves our liberties.Tremblay also used to the letter to endorse ending the direct election of U.S. senators, a process she describes as a "dismal failure." She writes that New Hampshire lawmakers have "prostituted their independent sovereignty to the federal government, all in the guise of 'grants' and funding."
Tremblay goes on to say that God has provided -- and can revoke -- government authority. "God has created the earth for a specific purpose," she writes. "We are literally his spirit children."
At the end of her letter, Tremblay apologizes to Rep. Steve Vaillancourt (R-Manchester) for not supporting him in 2012 when he was reprimanded by state lawmakers for delivering a Nazi salute on the House floor in an act of protest.
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