An advertisement released by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Greitens on Monday quickly gained widespread attention because of inflammatory remarks about hunting fellow Republicans.
Greitens, who resigned the Missouri governorship in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, released an ad featuring him carrying a shotgun and encouraging voters to get a “RINO-hunting permit” by supporting his campaign. RINO stands for Republican In Name Only.
“Join the MAGA crew,” Greitens says after storming an empty home with a crew in military gear. “Get a RINO-hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”
The ad, posted at 8:30 a.m. Monday, gained more than a million views on Twitter within the first two hours of posting. Those views also carried backlash, with critics calling it dangerous rhetoric aimed at encouraging violence among candidates and their supporters.
By Monday afternoon, Twitter flagged the ad for violating platform rules. Likes and interactions on the tweet were disabled.
“This tweet violated the Twitter Rules about abusive behavior,” a notification on the tweet states. “However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
The story was updated to update the flagging of the ad by Twitter.
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Earlier version of story ...
An advertisement released by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Greitens on Monday quickly gained widespread attention because of inflammatory remarks about hunting fellow Republicans.
Greitens, who resigned the Missouri governorship in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, released an ad featuring him carrying a shotgun and encouraging voters to get a “RINO-hunting permit” by supporting his campaign. RINO stands for Republican In Name Only.
“Join the MAGA crew,” Greitens says after storming an empty home with a crew in military gear. “Get a RINO-hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”
The ad gained more than a million views on Twitter within the first two hours of posting. Those views also carried backlash, with critics calling it dangerous rhetoric aimed at encouraging violence among candidates and their supporters.