Missouri Senate Candidate Releases “RINO Hunter” Campaign Ad
[guest post by Dana]
As you are aware, this is campaign season, and with that comes a myriad of political ads. This newly released “RINO hunting” ad from Navy Seal and MAGA Republican for Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens is a foul piece of work:
We are sick and tired of the Republicans in Name Only surrendering to Joe Biden & the radical Left.
Order your RINO Hunting Permit today! pic.twitter.com/XLMdJnAzSK
— Eric Greitens (@EricGreitens) June 20, 2022
As Axios points out:
“The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice…There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country,” Greitens says in the video.
He calls on his supporters to join the “MAGA crew” and get a “RINO hunting permit.”
“We are sick and tired of the Republicans in Name Only surrendering to Joe Biden & the radical Left,” Greitens tweeted alongside the ad. “Order your RINO Hunting Permit today!”
Greitens also shared a link for people to order their “RINO hunting permit,” which leads to a donation page.
Interesting about Greitens: His ex-wife has accused him of domestic abuse toward her and their children, and he faces a campaign finance scandal. Greitens has also been accused of sexual assault and blackmailing a woman with partially nude photos of her
Despite having been forced to resign as governor of Missouri because of the scandals, Greitens confirmed his MAGA bona fides by claiming that all of this is nothing more than a “witch hunt”.
But here’s the thing: given that MAGA rioters said that they were at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 because former President Donald Trump “asked” them to go and that the Jan. 6 Committee noted that “Trump “energized” far-right groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers to storm the Capitol weeks before the January 6 riot, when he tweeted that his supporters should travel to D.C. and said: “Be there, will be wild!,” this open season on RINOS messaging is a dangerous game to play. Yet as far as the Greitens campaign goes, the ad is just a metaphor:
Reached for comment by Fox News Monday, the Greitens campaign called the add a “message to RINO elected officials who continue to hurt the people of this country– your time is up.”
“If anyone doesn’t get the metaphor, they are either lying or dumb,” the campaign added.
And that’s the concern: some unbalanced, deceived and/or dumb individual might take the ad seriously and believe that they are being called to “hunt RINOS” just as we saw a mob, encouraged by the President of the United States, attack the U.S. Capitol and demand that the vice-president be hanged. We’ve also just seen an assassination attempt of a sitting Supreme Court Justice by an unbalanced individual angry over the leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s Roe decision and the Uvalde massacre. And just this past week, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who sits on the Jan. 6 Committee and is considered a RINO by a certain wing of the GOP, received a death threat against his wife and five-month old baby. Clearly, this isn’t the time for any candidate to be “targeting” (because that’s what it is) any group by using violent and wildly inflammatory imagery. The days of blowing this off as nothing but a metaphor are long gone.
I’m glad to see former members of the military criticizing the ad:
“I’m a huge fan of hyperbolic rhetoric using martial references,” said former America Matters director and Army Special Forces veteran Jim Hanson on Twitter. ” Much less so Of using actual violent military imagery To try to make a pedestrian political point. Lame.”
“This guy. So cringe,” said conservative commentator and retired Army Colonel Kurt Schlichter on Twitter, who also encouraged Missourians to vote for Greitens primary opponent, Eric Schmitt.
This really isn’t the way to make America great again…
One final thought: Today’s ReTrumplican Party wants to stifle and shut down any Republicans who dare to think differently and deviate from the MAGA company line. This only further confirms that the GOP is not the Big Tent party, and has not been for some time.
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (1225fc) — 6/20/2022 @ 12:48 pmPosted on the Weekend Open thread:
Rip Murdock (14415d) — 6/20/2022 @ 1:09 pmI didn’t believe it at the time but, yeah, this is the kind of guy who would engage in erotic bondage with his hairdresser and photograph it.
nk (a5cbbe) — 6/20/2022 @ 2:19 pmThis is third-party-ism in full. When a party starts rewarding the extreme, people find a way to be more extreme. You may think this ad is in poor taste and will turn off most voters, and you’d be right. But Greitens will get lots of campaign donations from fellow hyperwingnuts.
If only there was a moral center to the GOP. Reagan would have spoken ill of Greitens.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/20/2022 @ 2:19 pmIf he’s lost Kurt Schlichter …
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/20/2022 @ 2:23 pmAdd to this: Back in March, Greitens tweeted:
There’s also a rant-video.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/20/2022 @ 2:33 pmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGrBl-F7f8w
DCSCA (c878c4) — 6/20/2022 @ 2:39 pmThe family values party in action.
Time123 (095419) — 6/20/2022 @ 2:42 pmContemptible, but almost surely protected speech. This, on the other hand, if credible, may finally provide the until now missing and essential corrupt mental state element of a criminal case against Trump. That could significantly raise me estimation of the viability of prosecuting him:
lurker (cd7cd4) — 6/20/2022 @ 2:51 pmOnce things have gone from bad to worse, the cycle repeats.
John Boddie (3f90ad) — 6/20/2022 @ 2:51 pmAdded to end of post:
Dana (1225fc) — 6/20/2022 @ 2:53 pmThe family values party in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaZGaJrd3x8
DCSCA (c878c4) — 6/20/2022 @ 3:03 pmIf only there was a moral center to the GOP…
There never was— Reaganoptics; Reaganaurics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5wfPlgKFh8
DCSCA (c878c4) — 6/20/2022 @ 3:06 pm@9. On reflection, after denying he every said it, and making sure to insult Allysa Farah Griffin (the source), Trump will probably throw his “FAKE NEWS!!!”-screaming sycophants under the bus by admitting he did in fact say it, and not only that but it was the perfect thing to say, because by “lose” he obviously meant “win.” And the cult will eat it up.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 6/20/2022 @ 3:11 pmRe #5. Kurt can be Schlicter again (as opposed to a word for a bodily orifice or the German word for producing what comes out of said orifice).
urbanleftbehind (d29c92) — 6/20/2022 @ 3:13 pmProbably a political ad isn’t a great one if it makes me think “WTF is wrong with you?” when I watch it.
Nic (896fdf) — 6/20/2022 @ 3:53 pmThe more the left wish to define what speech by their opponent is permissible, the more we can expect this kind of push-back in political ads.
I do not agree with his speech, but I’ll defend his right to say it. Speech is not violence, and violence is not speech.
felipe (484255) — 6/20/2022 @ 3:58 pmThis only further confirms that the GOP is not the Big Tent party, and has not been for some time.
When did people first start calling each other “RINOs”
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/20/2022 @ 4:04 pmIf Time is money, and money is speech, and speech is violence, does that make time violent?
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/20/2022 @ 4:08 pmHeh, Kevin!
felipe (484255) — 6/20/2022 @ 4:10 pmI predict that the Democrats are going to nationalize the election and run against Trump. Might work if clowns like this can get enough airtime.
They probably think everyone’s laughing WITH them.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/20/2022 @ 4:12 pmThe ravages of time – must be true.
felipe (484255) — 6/20/2022 @ 4:14 pmWhen did people first start calling each other “RINOs”
RINO
Republican In Name Only (RINO) is a disparaging term that refers to a Republican candidate whose political views are seen as insufficiently conforming to the party line.
The phrase, without the RINO acronym, became first popularized during the Theodore Roosevelt presidency, as he was often labeled a “Republican in name only” by both critics and proponents, as his trust-busting policies were at odds with long-standing Republican Party ideologies.
By 1992, the acronym “RINO” had shown up in print, with an article in the New Hampshire Union Leader, written by John Distaso, being cited as the first instance of RINO in print. “The Republicans were moving out and the Democrats and ‘RINOS’ (Republicans In Name Only) were moving in.”
The use of the term RINO arose as polarization increased in the political parties. Prior to the 1992 election of Bill Clinton, the Democratic and Republican parties had been in a long process of realignment where conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans were quite common. With the election of Bill Clinton, Republican ideological unity became increasingly fixed. This is exemplified by Grover Norquist’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which called upon signatories to reject and oppose all measures to increase tax rates. By 2012, nearly every Republican presidential candidate was a signatory to this pledge.
The increasing ideological unity of the Republican Party made holdovers from the previous political alignment look like outliers. Whereas historically liberal Republicans comprised a wing of the Republican Party, they had (by 1992, and especially by 2020) become incompatible with the Republican Party itself.
Therefore, in an age of party unity, the term RINO was often used as a political weapon. It could be used as a threat: vote how your party wants or be branded a RINO. It could also be used as an effective tool in a primary campaign: the incumbent is a RINO, vote for the challenger. Indeed, in the 2010 Congressional Elections, the Tea Party effectively used the term RINO as a way to “primary” Republican Incumbents whose policies were not conservative enough.
RINO is also related to the historical term “Rockefeller Republican” which referred to (traditionally) Northeast Republicans who championed business friendly practices while remaining relatively socially liberal. Named after Nelson Rockefeller who served as the Governor of New York before running unsuccessfully for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1960, 1964, and 1968. This term has largely died out as the Rockefeller family’s political successes have dwindled.
https://politicaldictionary.com/words/rino/
Reagan Called RINOs ‘Traitors’
https://www.newsmax.com/genekopelson/ronaldreagan-rinos/2020/06/12/id/971922/
=mike-drop=
DCSCA (be28ea) — 6/20/2022 @ 4:35 pm@19, being hungry and tired makes Time violent. 😉
Time123 (731c34) — 6/20/2022 @ 5:31 pmThis ad more eloquently then my comments explains to you never trumper rinos along with calling a wounded war veteran one eyed mccain at texas gop convention what part of “NO” don’t you understand? How many times does the republican party have to tell you don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
asset (9a0b32) — 6/20/2022 @ 6:04 pmSpeaking of RINOs and hunting…
Where’s the leaker?
DCSCA (9978cf) — 6/20/2022 @ 8:16 pm@9 and @14 I don’t think what Trump said amounts to much. “Can you believe I lost to this guy?” is a question, not a statement. Deep down I don’t know that Trump is capable of *not* swallowing his own BS, he’s so practiced at it.
JRH (1685f4) — 6/20/2022 @ 8:26 pmI think Greitens thought this was hilarious….and it was aimed at voters who would share his sense of humor. The gun imagery and the obligatory “until we save America” kind of shows where the GOP is at these days. We’re setting the predicate for violence. It only takes a few suggestible people….and we’ve already seen hundreds of them roaming through the Capitol….because…ahem…somebody wanted them to be there…..
AJ_Liberty (411e90) — 6/20/2022 @ 8:48 pmDCCCP: “Where’s the leaker?”
Given your prostate and soiled sweat pants, I got a good hunch….
AJ_Liberty (411e90) — 6/20/2022 @ 8:52 pmThis only further confirms that the GOP is not the Big Tent party, and has not been for some time.
bullcrap
there are twenty-one candidates declared for the republican primary for the missouri seat
odds are you can find one that suits you
the voters may very well “stifle and shut down” the candidacy of twenty out of the twenty-one
it’s called an election
JF (33be04) — 6/20/2022 @ 8:56 pm@29. Projecting again, AJ? You can do better than that.
“C’mon, man!” – Squinty McStumblebum
DCSCA (528fe6) — 6/20/2022 @ 9:11 pmThis is not the perfect GOP add. It doesn’t say anything about mama, or illegals, or china, or oil, or jobs.
frosty (9f58fe) — 6/21/2022 @ 4:26 amWhat Trump and his millions of voters wanted was – less taxes – better environment – fair trade – strong defense – equal opportunity for all men and women – good jobs galore – a strong border – with compassion. A fair constitutional court system – freedom of religion.
Surely you agree dont you?
EPWJ (650a62) — 6/21/2022 @ 5:42 amEPWJ:
If Trump wants all that — why is he more focused on RINOs and stolen election claims than actually selling his vision and trying to find allies rather than enemies?
Appalled (ac2cef) — 6/21/2022 @ 6:34 amGreitens would’ve been better off adopting the “Guns, Jesus, Babies” platform, speaking as a proud and unapologetic RINO.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 6/21/2022 @ 6:40 amAppalled (ac2cef) — 6/21/2022 @ 6:34 am
we get a peek at the nevertrump playbook here
schmitt, not greitens, had a fundraiser at mar-a-lago, though trump may be leaning toward billy long
who knows
other maga heads, like hawley and cruz, have endorsed hartzler and schmitt respectively
find the biggest knucklehead candidate, then make them the maga choice when you have nothing to back it up
JF (daacbb) — 6/21/2022 @ 6:47 am#36 —
All I did was respond directly to EPWJ on what Trump wants.
Greitens sounds like a piece of work, and if the opposition is a Trump devotee, please vote for the Trump devotee.
Appalled (31c3d9) — 6/21/2022 @ 7:38 amYour remarks remind me about the saying that “Fascism is always descending on America, but landing on Europe”
Your claim is that it’s incitement and causing people to grab their guns to fight. Yet nary a word when the actual attempted assassins from the left actually do what you claim the right does. Why is that? Justice Kavanaugh and Congressman Scalise say hello for starters.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 6/21/2022 @ 7:46 amThis Ramirez cartoon is a appropriate illustration for this post, though it is even more ironic now than when he drew it.
Jim Miller (406a93) — 6/21/2022 @ 7:57 am29, I would have went with everywhere in CA except DCSCA’s block
urbanleftbehind (8b6e3b) — 6/21/2022 @ 8:06 amAnd that doesn’t even include all the leftist politicians making excuses for the summer of love and giving them room to riot and burn.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 6/21/2022 @ 8:08 amHow many times does the republican party have to tell you don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
Well, it’s a two-party system and the Democrats are hardly moving towards the middle. With any luck both parties will exit the political sphere entirely and allow some sanity to re-enter.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/21/2022 @ 8:18 am@39: Everything is relative.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/21/2022 @ 8:22 amAppalled
He says that everyday and he builds coalitions everyday. I know what it like to have a stolen election trump has EVERY right to be outraged AND SO SHOULD YOU AND EVERYONE HERE He didnt do anything wrong, he achieved more than any president in a hundred years. He kept the press and the chickenhawks from goading him into war with Putin, with North Korea with China and Iran. He kept the greenies at bay and he defended our interests.
EPWJ (6b77ac) — 6/21/2022 @ 8:25 am#44 —
“I know what its like to have an election stolen”.
There seems to be a story behind this statement. Do you have details you want to share?
Appalled (31c3d9) — 6/21/2022 @ 9:17 amEPJW,
You’ve already been cautioned to not push the stolen election lie. You are now going into moderation.
Dana (1225fc) — 6/21/2022 @ 9:40 am* waves *
Missourian here.
Grietens is a clown.
He’s known as a clown amongst righties.
He’s only been a Republican like 10 secs before he ran for Gov, and he claims he stepped down because he negotiated an agreement with the St. Louis AG to drop her case (which she was sanctioned for btw) for his resignation. He resigned because the super-majority legislature was going to impeach/remove him from office for both the allegations of his wife AND for breaking campaign laws.
Eric Schmitt is getting the nom.
whembly (7e0293) — 6/21/2022 @ 2:51 pmhe achieved more than any president in a hundred years.
Bwaaahahahahahaha!!!!
Good one!
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 6/21/2022 @ 3:42 pmWell, it’s a two-party system
Which would be news to all these political parties in the USA:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States
The problem is the so-called ‘two parties’ who’ve been pouring sugar into America’s gas tank for decades and turn out the likes of a Biden or a Trump.
DCSCA (365c20) — 6/21/2022 @ 11:27 pmA useful post on the legal obstacles to prosecuting Trump.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 6/22/2022 @ 2:53 amA day and a half after, I’d like to put in a good word for EPWJ:
1. He’s been here for a very long time, more than a dozen years;
nk (f0797a) — 6/22/2022 @ 6:25 pm2. He’s usually a pretty decent guy, his was most decent comment on the first Uvalde school shooting thread;
3. It was the summer solstice and not only that, there’s a gigantic sunspot; and
4. I am not entirely convinced that he is not from an alternate universe where what he asserts is reality.