A Missouri lawmaker who called for the vandal of a Confederate monument to be hanged is set to go before an ethics panel.

House Ethics Committee members on Thursday will consider how to respond to scathing complaints against Republican Rep. Warren Love.

He came under fire for an August Facebook post expressing hope that whoever vandalized the monument in Springfield, Missouri, would be "hung from a tall tree with a long rope."

Love has said he was using old cowboy jargon. But Democrats have said his words evoke images of lynchings of black people.