Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign has been thrown in Twitter jail.
After sharing a video of a profanity-laced protest outside of the Kentucky Republican’s home in Louisville, the campaign Twitter account, Team Mitch, has been locked out.
“This morning, Twitter locked our account for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell. This is a problem with the speech police in America today,” McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden told the Courier Journal. “The Lexington Herald-Leader can attack Mitch with cartoon tombstones of his opponents. But we can’t mock it.
“Twitter will allow the words of “Massacre Mitch” to trend nationally on their platform, but locks our account for posting actual threats against us,” Golden added. “We appealed and Twitter stood by their decision, saying our account will remain locked until we delete the video.”
McConnell, who fractured his shoulder on Sunday, has been under a heated spotlight after two mass shootings that killed more than 30 people and injured several more.
Democrats and other critics have been urging McConnell to take up several gun control measures that proponents believe will stem the violence.
On Monday, Black Lives Matter Louisville leader Chanelle Helm said in a live video of the protest outside of McConnell’s Highlands-area home that instead of falling and injuring his shoulder over the weekend, the GOP leader “should have broken his little raggedy, wrinkled-(expletive) neck.”
After a man makes a reference to a hypothetical McConnell voodoo doll, Helm replied, “Just stab the m—– f—– in the heart.” That comment went viral on Twitter.
In a phone interview with the Courier Journal on Tuesday afternoon, Helm said she doesn’t regret her comments.
This is how it’s going to go from now on
That’s a different feed showing those protesters who were not just harassing him at home, they were yelling threats to his life!
And what about his neighbors?
Weren’t they keeping them up, too?
Twitter’s decision to lock the account of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign sparked an opposite reaction Thursday by major Republican campaign committees, super PACs, and lawmakers to buy no advertising on the social media platform.
GROUPS:
National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Jesse Hunt announced that the NRSC will stop spending on the platform as a result.
Parker Poling, the executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) – the GOP’s official House campaign arm – said that it too will halt ad spend on Twitter.
Republican National Committee (RNC) chief of staff Richard Walters tweeted that both the RNC and the Trump campaign would take the same stand.
Also signing on were the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the Republican Governors Association (RGA), the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), the Republicans Attorneys General Association, and the Republican Party of Kentucky, McConnell’s home state.
INDIVIDUALS:
They were joined by GOP lawmakers including Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Martha McSally (Ariz.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), and Reps. Sean Duffy (Wisc.), Bill Cassidy (La.)
More to come.
Hitting Twitter where it hurts.