CHICAGO – Former Illinois Congressman and radio talk show host Joe Walsh has taken down a tweet in which he declared "This is now war" and called for President Barack Obama to "watch out" in a Twitter post reacting to the Dallas shooting that killed five police officers and injured seven.
"I wasn't calling for violence, against Obama or anyone. Obama's words and BLM's deeds have gotten cops killed," he tweeted.
Walsh stood by his tweets Friday morning, saying in a 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."
He added: "It would end my career and it's wrong. I would never say anything as reprehensible as that."
"You know how social media is," he said. "I put out some stuff that I believe. And I've had people on the left hating on me and threatening to kill me on Twitter and Facebook all night."
Walsh said some people on social media had called for the Secret Service or FBI to arrest him — including singer John Legend, who tweets at @johnlegend.
When asked about Walsh on Friday, Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said, "We are not providing any comment on that."
