Missouri Republican Senate candidate Eric Greitens says a violent campaign ad in which he holds a shotgun and urges supporters to “get a RINO hunting permit” was meant to be humorous.
“I don’t think there is a real person in Missouri who thinks about it literally. Not one,” Greitens said in an interview on KFTK (97.1 FM) radio, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “What you’re seeing is a tremendous amount of faux outrage from leftists and RINOs.”
“It has a sense of humor,” he added.
Greitens also told Kansas City’s KCMO talk radio that the video was “clearly a metaphor. Every normal person around the state of Missouri saw that.”
In the 38-seconds ad, Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, and actors dressed as soldiers stormed into an empty house with guns looking for RINOs, the acronym for ‘Republicans In Name Only.’
“Today, we’re going RINO hunting,” Greitens said. “The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice. Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”
Twitter flagged and limited users’ engagement with the post while Facebook removed it completely for violating policies around violence and abuse.
