A former Tea Party congressman from Illinois sent a series of tweets on Thursday night blaming the fatal police shootings in Dallas on President Barack Obama and declaring a war on “black lives matter punks.”
Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), who now hosts a nationally syndicated far-right radio show, posted a tweet warning that “Real America” was coming after Obama and Black Lives Matter activists at around midnight.
The post has since been deleted, and Walsh posted another tweet shortly later insisting he wasn’t “calling for violence,” just for people to “defend our cops.”
As of Friday morning, his Twitter feed was still overflowing with posts blaming the president’s “words” and “BLM’s deeds” for the attack on law enforcement at the end of a Dallas Black Lives Matter protest. The attack killed five officers and wounded seven others. Two civilians were also injured in the attack.
I wasn’t calling for violence, against Obama or anyone. Obama’s words & BLM’s deeds have gotten cops killed. Time for us to defend our cops.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) July 8, 2016
Walsh blamed “2 uneducated black thugs” for the shootings, though no identifying information about who the suspects were or how many were involved has yet been made public.
Obama says Cops are racist so 2 uneducated black thugs shoot 10 Dallas Cops tonight, killing 4.
Wake up silent majority. Stand w our Cops.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) July 8, 2016
He also said that liberals “did this” and that the media “fans the meme of bad, racist Cops.”
10 Cops shot.
You did this Obama.
You did this liberals.
You did this #BLM.
Time to defend our Cops. Wake up. https://t.co/Zoc3x2xlMk
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) July 8, 2016
5 Cops killed last night & the media is shocked. Shocked? Crack me up. The media fans the meme of bad, racist Cops and now they’re shocked?
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) July 8, 2016
As Mic editor Slade Sohmer pointed out, Donald Trump’s eldest son followed Walsh on Twitter as he sent out this flood of posts. Donald Trump Jr. even retweeted one of Walsh’s posts linking to an article on conservative site Hypeline headlined “Minutes after Dallas shooting #BLM radicals call for death of cops on Twitter.”
The protest in Dallas was organized to protest the fatal police shootings of two black men this week.
This post has been updated.
Bloody moron.
Yes, because using Hate to fight Hate in a country with 300 million guns always works out well.
C’mon Joe, next time, just man up and use your KKK robes. I think you can wear white after labor day.
His comments are beneath contempt. I just want to say wow, what a punchable face. Really blue-ribbon punchability there.
I wonder why he deleted that tweet.
Nice to see you, loser Joe.
You know of course after you complained about all those folks of color saying black lives matter was just another way for people of color to hate on real Americans.
Well, that fool in Texas took your words to heart and accommodated your wishes.
You know the way out. And if you don’t, my security detail will refresh your memory.