Gop Senate Nominee Eric Greitens Has Been Criticized For Advertising The Rino Hunting Campaign.

Former Missouri Gov. Eric Gretens, the Republican candidate for the Senate, has come under fire after a campaign ad was published Monday showing him pretending to be chasing members of his party. “Today we are going to hunt for RINO,” Greitens said in the video, using the derogatory phrase “Republicans in Name Only.” In the ad, Greitens stands outside a house with a group of others dressed in regular tools and whispers, “RINO feeds on corruption and is characterized by the stripes of cowardice.” The tactical team then opens the door, fires smoke bombs inside and enters with their weapons drawn. “Join the MAGA crew. “Get a RINO hunting license,” says Greitens, standing inside a seemingly empty house surrounded by smoke. The ad was posted Monday morning on various social media accounts owned by Greitens and his Senate campaign. Greitens’s ex-wife accuses him of domestic violence in court documents The video was removed from Facebook “for violating our policies banning violence and incitement,” according to Facebook spokesman Andy Stone, but the video remained on Twitter and YouTube until early Monday afternoon. About four hours after Greitens posted the video, Twitter posted a warning tag above the tweet, saying it “violates the Twitter Abuse Rules”. However, Twitter left the video with a message that the company “determined that it may be in the public interest to keep Tweet accessible”. A YouTube spokesman did not request comment. The ad comes amid a wave of political violence and threats against public officials, as well as a general vitriolic environment in conservative circles among those who believe former President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations that the 2020 election was rigged and those who spoke at the GOP. against these claims. The Washington Post last year watched as election administrators in at least 17 states received threats of violence in the months following the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, which were often triggered directly by Trump comments. On Sunday, spokesman Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) Shared that his wife had received a letter in the mail threatening to execute his family, including their 5-month-old baby. Kinzinger is one of 10 Republicans who broke with his party last year and voted to oust Trump, and has since been criticized by Trump and his allies as “RINO.” Kinzinger has also hailed Republican voters and party members for being one of only two Republican lawmakers to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. The rise of He-Man political ads ““There is violence in the future, I’ll tell you,” Kinzinger told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, referring to death threats he and others have received. “And until we can tell people the truth, we can not expect otherwise.” The Greitens’s campaign advertisement also comes after a series of high-profile mass shootings, including at a May 14 Buffalo grocery store where 10 people were killed, and in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two elementary school teachers were killed. on May 24. These and other shootings sparked nationwide protests against armed violence and sparked a series of bipartisan debates in Congress over gun safety legislation. The ad was quickly criticized by those who warned that the Greitens video could lead to real-world violence. “This is sociopathic,” spokesman Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) Wrote on Twitter. “You will kill someone.” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jamie Harrison called the video “radical … extreme … inconceivable.” Former lawmaker Joe Walsh, who left the Republican Party for criticism of Trump, said he was not surprised by the ad and called on the GOP, which continues to support Trump. “To every Republican today who thinks of criticizing this ad: You can not criticize and support Trump,” Walls wrote on Twitter. “There is a ZERO difference between Eric Gretens and Donald Trump. In fact, your cowardly embrace of Trump led directly to Gratins and [Marjorie Taylor] Green and [Lauren] Bobert and… » Others pointed to Greitens’s own history of violence. Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, has been accused by his ex-wife of domestic violence, including physical violence against their children. He denied the allegations. Gretens resigned as governor of Missouri in 2018 in disgrace after a relationship with a former hairdresser that included allegations of abuse and blackmail. He launched his Senate campaign last year after Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) Announced he would retire at the end of his term. Representatives of the Republican Party, the National Republican Senate Committee and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Did not respond to requests for comment. Cristiano Lima and Rosalind Helderman contributed to this report.