Twitter says Mitch McConnell violated its policies by posting a video of threats made against him

Twitter has locked the campaign account belonging to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), saying it violated the platform's violent threat policy by posting a video of violent threats being made against him.

McConnell's Team Mitch Twitter account was locked after it posted a video of protesters gathered outside the Senate leader's house shouting profanities and calling for his death, with one saying he "should have broken his little raggedy, wrinkled-(expletive) neck" when he fell and fractured his shoulder recently, The Courier-Journal reports. This protester, a Louisville Black Lives Matter leader, also says in reference to the idea of a voodoo doll of McConnell, "Just stab the mother f-- in the heart." Another protester in the video shouts "Die," The Washington Post reports.

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed to the Courier-Journal that McConnell's account was locked "for a Tweet that violated our violent threats policy, specifically threats involving physical safety." McConnell's campaign manager slammed Twitter for this decision, saying the company "will allow the words of 'Massacre Mitch' to trend nationally on their platform but locks our account for posting actual threats against us."

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Twitter reportedly told the McConnell campaign that its account, which took heat earlier this week for posting a photo of a fake tombstone for his 2020 Democratic challenger, that it would remain locked until the video was deleted.

The protester who called for McConnell's death, meanwhile, told the Courier-Journal she doesn't regret doing so because "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." McConnell's account said in its most recent tweet prior to the account being locked that local law enforcement had been contacted because "these threats go far beyond a political cartoon or a broken shoulder" and are "serious calls to physical violence."