Former GOP candidate calls for “bullets” in response to Twitter files

Users raised alarms on Twitter Friday after a former Republican House candidate called for violence in response to the so-called “Twitter files.”

Friday night saw the release of the “files,” which new Twitter owner Elon Musk hyped as a series of internal messages showing how previous leadership at the company suppressed a New York Post story about Hunter Biden prior to the 2020 election. Released via former Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi in a long series of tweets, the messages showed leaders at Twitter uncertain about the source of the story, opting early on to suppress the story in its recommendation algorithms and then blocking links to it under the company’s policy on hacked materials.

As much as the reveal was talked up by Musk and others, the prevailing consensus has been that the files were underwhelming, not bringing to light anything that was not known about Twitter’s handling of the story beforehand. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey even publically called the company’s initial handling of the story “a total mistake.”

Despite that prevailing sentiment, some figures on the right have continued to hail the Twitter files as a major scandal. Among these figures was Shukri Abdirahman, a former Republican House candidate who ran for the party nomination for Minnesota’s 5th District, ultimately losing the primary to Cicely Davis. The 5th District is currently led by progressive Democrat Ilhan Omar, who won reelection against Davis last month.

Abdirahman raised alarms on Friday night when she called for “bullets” and not “ballots” to fight “tyranny” in response to Taibbi’s thread.

“We can no longer get rid of tyranny by the ballots,” Abdirahman wrote. “It’s only by bullets now.”

Numerous users expressed alarm over the former candidate’s tweet, feeling that it was aiming to incite violence against the government. Among those concerned was former U.S. Army commanding general Mark Hertling, who reported the tweet and called for others to do so as well.

“I’ve reported this tweet, and I hope many others do as well,” Hertling wrote. “This is a perfect example of inciting violence and hate speech…if she isn’t thrown off Twitter for this, there is no hope for this platform.”

“Shukri Abdirahman, a failed Republican congressional candidate, suggests people take up arms in response to the ‘Twitter Files’ thread by Matt Taibbi,” a user going only by Kitty wrote. “This is so incredibly unhinged.”

“This is no longer funny,” user Sitara68 tweeted, also tagging the Department of Justice. “This is an incitement to violence by Shukri Abdirahman. People need to start getting consequences for fomenting civil war. Someone needs to put their foot down.”

Abdirahman was not quiet in response to criticism of her tweet, calling her detractors “so called Americans” and claiming that the Founding Fathers would support her message.

“You so called Americans outraged by my below tweet & calling for my account to be suspended should go back & read the Constitution,” Abdirahman wrote. “It’s no secret that our Founders would’ve taken up arms & put to use the real purpose of the 2A to take out this tyrannical gov’t.”

Newsweek reached out to the Minnesota Republican Party for comment

Among the other information contained in Taibbi’s thread were messages showing that the Biden presidential campaign had reached out to Twitter regarding the removal of certain tweets, which the journalist and Musk himself held up as a violation of the First Amendment. However, subsequent digging by other reporters found that the removed tweets in question were sexually intimate photos and videos seemingly stolen from Hunter Biden’s laptop, which would have violated Twitter’s “revenge porn” policies and not been protected by the First Amendment.

It was also noted that, at the time the Biden campaign reached out to Twitter, Biden was still an unelected private citizen and did not represent government influence. Additionally, a report from The Bulwark noted that a private entity lobbying a private social network for the removal of certain content does not violate the First Amendment and that Twitter was in no way required to comply if it did not wish to.