Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) became the second American politician to see one of his tweets censored by Twitter, as reported by USA Today.
In the original tweet on Monday, Congressman Gaetz said that “Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?” In a manner similar to how Twitter shockingly censored one of President Trump’s tweets, the social media platform blocked out his text with a “warning” declaring that “This Tweet violated the Twitter rules about glorifying violence.” Users cannot like, reply to, or retweet the post unless they choose to retweet it with their own comment.
Since the censoring of the tweet, Gaetz has repeatedly tweeted about the incident and has refused to walk back his comments about Antifa. The currently-pinned tweet on his profile includes a Politico story about the censorship, with Gaetz commenting that “their warning is my badge of honor.” He doubled down on Antifa, pointing out that the organization is “encouraging riots that hurt Americans,” and that “our government should hunt them down.”
President Trump formally declared Antifa a terrorist organization over the weekend, after nearly a week of violent riots in Minneapolis that quickly spread across the country, carried out by the Anarcho-Communist group.
On Monday night, President Trump addressed the nation and confirmed that he would mobilize the military to Washington D.C., while also vowing to send the military into any state or city where he feels the local leaders are not adequately upholding the peace. Following his speech, President Trump walked out the front door of the White House and through Lafayette Park, where all the rioters had been cleared out moments earlier, to pay tribute to St. John’s Episcopal Church after it had been partially burned by rioters on Sunday night.