Former Congressman tweets after Dallas shooting: 'Watch out Obama'

July 08, 2016 22:24

Former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh declared "This is now war" and called for US President Obama to "watch out" in a Twitter post reacting to a Dallas shooting incident that left five police officers dead and seven injured.

"This is now war. Watch out Obama. Watch out black lives matter punks. Real America is coming after you," he wrote in the post, which has since been deleted.

In subsequent tweets that remained posted as of early Friday, he called the shooters "uneducated black thugs" and blamed Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement for the officers' deaths.

"I wasn't calling for violence, against Obama or anyone. Obama's words and BLM's deeds have gotten cops killed," he tweeted.

The Dallas officers were attacked by snipers who opened fire on an anti-police-brutality protest on Thursday, police there said.

An unrepentant Walsh stood by his tweets Friday morning, saying in a Chicago Tribune interview: "Of course I didn't mean 'let's go kill Obama and Black Lives Matter'. I was not trying to incite violence against Obama and Black Lives Matter. That's crazy and stupid and wrong."

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