Former congressman says Twitter deleted his ‘Obama watch out’ tweet on Dallas shooting

Reporting from Chicago —  Former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh declared, “This is now war” and called for President Obama to “watch out” in a Twitter post reacting to the Dallas shooting that killed five police officers and injured seven.

“This is now war. Watch out Obama. Watch out black lives matter punks. Real America is coming after you,” he wrote in the tweet, which has since been deleted.

In subsequent tweets he called the shooters “uneducated black thugs” and blamed Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement for the officers’ deaths.

“I wasn’t calling for violence, against Obama or anyone. Obama’s words and BLM’s deeds have gotten cops killed,” he tweeted.

The Dallas police officers were shot during an anti-police-brutality protest Thursday.

An unrepentant Walsh stood by his tweets Friday morning, saying: “Of course I didn’t mean, ‘let’s go kill Obama and Black Lives Matter.’ I was not trying to incite violence against Obama and Black Lives Matter. That’s crazy and stupid and wrong.”

He added: “It would end my career and it’s wrong. I would never say anything as reprehensible as that.”

Walsh, a talk radio host who lives in suburban Chicago, said he has had a sleepless night because of death threats against him on social media. He said he had asked for local police protection.

“You know how social media is,” he said. “I put out some stuff that I believe. And I’ve had people on the left hating on me and threatening to kill me on Twitter and Facebook all night.”

Walsh said some people on social media had called for the Secret Service or FBI to arrest him — including singer John Legend.

“Joe Walsh needs to be arrested for threatening our President,” reads a tweet from Legend, who has nearly 8 million Twitter followers.

Walsh said he had not been contacted by federal authorities and had no idea if he would be hearing from the Secret Service. “If I did, I would give them the same answer I would give you: I would not encourage any violence against the president of the United States or anybody.”

Walsh said what he was trying to convey in his tweets is this: “There’s a war against our cops in this country, and I think Obama has fed that war and Black Lives Matter has fed that war. ... Obama’s words and the deeds of Black Lives Matter have gotten cops in this country killed.”

When asked about Walsh on Friday, Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said, “We are not providing any comment on that.”

The controversial tweet was posted at 10:56 p.m. Thursday.

According to Walsh, it was up for an hour or so when he received word electronically from Twitter that it had suspended his account.

“They said the tweet might look like it might incite violence,” he said.

He said he was allowed to reopen his account only if the tweet was deleted, which he said had happened without him taking action.

“Twitter, Facebook — they’re all liberal,” he said. “They’re private companies and they got their standards that I have to follow if I want to be on Twitter. It is what it is.”

“The pre-condition for me reopening my account was they had to delete that tweet,” Walsh said.

Twitter’s rules state there are limits on what content and behavior it allows and that failure to comply with its rules “may result in the temporary locking and/or permanent suspension of account(s).”

Several types of messages and images are prohibited, including direct or indirect “violent threats.”

“You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism,” its rules state.

Walsh, 54, has a history of controversial comments. He rode a “tea party” wave into Congress in 2010 with an upset against Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean, an incumbent, to represent Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs.

He held the 8th Congressional District seat for two years, losing in 2012 to Democrat Tammy Duckworth.

He said he planned to broadcast his radio shows on Friday as usual.

Skiba and Crepeau write for the Chicago Tribune

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