Ex-Illinois Rep. Walsh says Twitter took down Dallas tweet ‘Watch out Obama’

Former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, now a radio talk show host, declared “This is now war” and called for President Barack 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 that posted Thursday night, which has since been deleted.

In subsequent tweets that remained posted as of early Friday, he called the shooters “uneducated black thugs” and blamed Obama and the Black Lives Mattermovement 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 at a protest against police brutality Thursday, police there said.

An unrepentant Walsh stood by his tweets Friday morning, saying in a Tribune interview: “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, 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.”

After a daylong backlash against Walsh and his tweet, he apologized on his mid-afternoon syndicated radio show for the message, saying it had been misinterpreted. But the apology came with his insistence that he stood by the tweet and did not regret as he sought to put the onus on people who he said misunderstood him.

Walsh asserted on the show that “millions and millions of Americans all around the country have wished me nothing but death.” He said he had a sleepless night with a shotgun by his bed in light of the threats. He also said general managers of radio stations that carry his program were getting calls to get rid of him.

Walsh earlier had said some people on social media had called for the Secret Service or FBI to arrest him — including singer John Legend, who tweets at @johnlegend.

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

In his Friday morning interview with the Tribune, Walsh said he had not been contacted by federal authorities about the tweet. “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.”

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.

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.”

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.

Asked about Wash’s version of the events, Twitter spokesman Nu Wexler says the company does “not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons.”

Wexler did cite a Twitter rule prohibiting threats of violence or the promotion of violence.

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