CNN
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On Sunday, Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kizinger said he had received a letter in the mail a few days ago threatening to kill him, his wife and their newborn.
“There is violence in the future, I’m going to tell you,” Kinzinger said On ABC’s “This Week”. “And until we get the grip of telling people the truth, we can’t expect anything different.”
Less than 24 hours later, Eric Greetens, a major contenders For the Republican Senate nomination in Missouri, released a new video In which he is portrayed as the victim RINO (Republican in Name Only).
“I’m Eric Grettens, Navy SEAL, and today we’re going RINO hunt.” Grittens says he walks on the sidewalk with a gun in hand.
The video cuts to a house where Greetens, who looks like a tactical unit, is waiting by the door. “The rhino feeds on corruption and is marked by stripes of cowardice,” Grettens says. The unit breaks open the door and looks like a smoke grenade. Greitens walks through the door. “Join the MAGA crew,” he says. “Get a RINO hunting permit. There is no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t end until we save our country.
um what? Like, what the heck is that?!?
Two observations:
1) Given the extremely controversial nature of our political climate—not to mention the recent mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas—is it really wise to post a video showing a political opponent’s home with big guns? Along with being raided by people?
2) The message contained in Greetens’ video is that it’s perfectly okay for armed individuals to raid a private home because, um, the person living there doesn’t agree with your views on politics and policy. Sit with him for a minute.
What is worth mentioning is that this is not a video posted by a fringe candidate who has no chance of winning and is desperate for attention. quite the contrary. Grittens is seen as one of the top candidates in the Missouri GOP Senate field ahead of the primaries on August 2. Greetens resigned from the post of governor of the state After a series of allegations of moral lapses and sexual misconduct in 2018. He did not admit to any legal wrongdoing, and the criminal charges against him were dropped.
While Donald Trump has yet to offer any endorsement in the race, Politico reported Earlier this year that the former president is fond of Greetens. Other candidates running for the Republican Senate nomination in Missouri are Reps Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long, and State Attorney General Eric Schmidt.
What would motivate Greetens to post a video that is, at best, irresponsible and, at worst, outright dangerous? Because he believes it will work.
And by “work” I mean two things:
1) It will draw an enormous amount of attention – negative or positive – to their campaign. Within three hours of being posted on Twitter, the video had already garnered over 1 million views. Facebook moved swiftly to remove the video on Monday for “violating our policies and inciting violence,” according to Meta spokesman Andy Stone. Twitter put a label on Grettens’ post, saying it violated the social media platform’s rules, but that it “may be in the public interest for the tweet to remain accessible,” CNN Donnie O’Sullivan told,
2) The negative attention Grettens receives for the video will be used by the candidate as positive evidence for the Republican base that Democrats and the media are concerned about him and his candidacy. I’d be surprised if it took Greetens’ team more than 24 hours to convert the negative reaction to the video into a fundraising appeal.
Which shows how fundamentally broken our political system is. It shouldn’t be a partisan debate that a video like Greetens posted on Monday is ambiguous. But unfortunately, that’s exactly it.
This story has been updated with additional information.