McConnell campaign locked out by Twitter for profanity-laced video

McConnell's campaign locked out by Twitter for posting critic's profanity-laced video

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign has been thrown in Twitter jail.

After sharing a video of a profanity-laced protest outside of the Kentucky Republican's home in Louisville, the campaign Twitter account, Team Mitch, has been locked out.

"This morning, Twitter locked our account for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell. This is a problem with the speech police in America today," McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden told the Courier Journal. "The Lexington Herald-Leader can attack Mitch with cartoon tombstones of his opponents. But we can’t mock it.

"Twitter will allow the words of “Massacre Mitch” to trend nationally on their platform, but locks our account for posting actual threats against us," Golden added. "We appealed and Twitter stood by their decision, saying our account will remain locked until we delete the video."

According to Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough, “The user was temporarily locked out of their account for a Tweet that violated our violent threats policy, specifically threats involving physical safety.”

Twitter's policy states that users "may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people" and that the social network prohibits "the glorification of violence."

McConnell, who fractured his shoulder on Sunday, has been under a heated spotlight after two mass shootings that killed more than 30 people and injured several more.

Democrats and other critics have been urging McConnell to take up several gun control measures that proponents believe will stem the violence.

Background: Protester calls for harm to Mitch McConnell

On Monday, Black Lives Matter Louisville leader Chanelle Helm said in a live video of the protest outside of McConnell's Highlands-area home that instead of falling and injuring his shoulder over the weekend, the GOP leader "should have broken his little raggedy, wrinkled-(expletive) neck."

After a man makes a reference to a hypothetical McConnell voodoo doll, Helm replied, "Just stab the m----- f----- in the heart." That comment went viral on Twitter.

In a phone interview with the Courier Journal on Tuesday afternoon, Helm said she doesn't regret her comments.

"McConnell doesn’t care about people who actually do break their necks, who need insulin, who need any type of medication, because they want to stop and prevent health care for all," she said. "And that is something that every American out here wants. There’s only a few Americans who don’t want that, and those people are politicians and their cronies."

Read more: Bevin rips Fischer for loud protest at McConnell's house

Contact Ben Tobin at [email protected] and 502-582-4181 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.