Senate candidate's RINO Hunting Ad

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Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens (R) is facing criticism after he released a new video urging his supporters to go “RINO hunting.”

The Missouri Republican shared a 38-second video on Twitter where he touts his past as a Navy SEAL and is seen breaking into a house while going what he calls “RINO hunting.”

“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,” he says in the video.

Greitens, who is seen holding a long shotgun for the duration of the video, is surrounded by men in U.S. armed forces camouflage uniforms. He also urged his supporters to join the “MAGA crew” and to get a “RINO hunting permit” after he rushed into an empty house while his crew tossed in a flash grenade.

He shared the video with a caption Monday that said, “we are sick and tired of the Republicans in Name Only surrendering to Joe Biden & the radical Left.”

Greitens, who calls himself a conservative and an “outsider,” faced swift retaliation on social media for alluding to hunting humans in the video.

Facebook removed the video, with a spokesperson for its parent company Meta saying it violated “our policies prohibiting violence and incitement.”

Twitter did not remove the video, but added a notice on the tweet that said: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about abusive behavior. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

When asked for a comment by The Hill, Greitens’s campaign press office said, “If anyone doesn’t get the metaphor, they are either lying or dumb.”

The former Missouri governor, who was forced to resign in 2018 after allegations of campaign finance violations and sexual assault of a woman he was dating surfaced, is running for the seat left open by the upcoming retirement of GOP Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.).

Greitens has also been accused of abusing his ex-wife Sheena Greitens, who said that he grew physically violent with her and her children.

She shared disturbing details including that Eric Greitens bought a gun, hid it from his family and threatened to kill himself if his then-wife did not provide “specific public political support” prior to his resignation.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) previously said that Greitens should drop out of the Missouri race after the allegations of abuse came to light. “If you hit a woman or a child, you belong in handcuffs, not the United States Senate,” Hawley tweeted. “It’s time for Eric Greitens to leave this race.”

Hours after former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens released a video saying he would hunt members of the Republican party who he considered not conservative enough, the Republican floor leader of the Missouri state Senate said he had contacted law enforcement. “We have been in contact with the Missouri Highway Patrol and hope that former Gov Greitens finds the help he needs,” Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden posted on Twitter Monday. “Anyone with multiple accusations of abuse toward women and children should probably steer clear of this rhetoric.” Rowden’s post was in response to a now-deleted tweet from an unaffiliated account supporting Greitens’ U.S. Senate campaign. The account, called @Greitens_Eric, no longer exists. The tweet tagged Rowden, Gov. Mike Parson and others. It said “we’ve got our permit and we’re coming for you.”
Greitens was roundly criticized for the campaign video on social media and was immediately denounced by members of both parties in the wake of two high-profile mass shootings. By Monday afternoon, the video was removed from Facebook and it was “flagged” with a warning on Twitter.

Ex-Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens isn’t quite sure what all the fuss is about after he released a deranged Senate campaign ad that depicted him and a team of armed soldiers hunting down, and shooting, Republicans who aren’t as politically extreme as him. “I don’t think there is a real person in Missouri who thinks about it literally. Not one,” Greitens claimed in an interview with KFTK, shrugging it off as “faux outrage from leftists and RINOs.” Greitens claimed the video was “clearly a metaphor”—he did not specify for what—and that “every normal person around the state of Missouri saw that.” The ad was criticized by plenty of “real” people, from the Missouri State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police to the conservative PAC Eagle Forum, who called it “deeply disturbing,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

When Missouri GOP Senate candidate Eric Greitens released an ad that featured him holding a shotgun saying he was going “RINO hunting”—a favored acronym among conservatives for “Republican In Name Only”—Greitens didn’t seem to consider how the ad could backfire.

Liberals, of course, would be up in arms, but that is sort of the point when you’re in a GOP primary in a state Donald Trump won by 15 points.

What Greitens didn’t anticipate, however, was that Trump and his team might also be disturbed—and that an ad with Jan. 6’s violent undertones might be all the more reason for the former president to stay away from endorsing a former governor who had to resign following allegations of sexual assault.

For now, Trumpworld is watching how Greitens handles the controversy with great interest, sources told The Daily Beast.

Although Greitens’ campaign chairwoman and MAGA conduit Kimberly Guilfoyle is “all-in,” according to sources familiar with the matter, Trump’s outspoken son and highly influential Trumpwold kingpin—Donald Trump Jr.—who is engaged to Guilfoyle, has yet to endorse a candidate in the race.

“While Don has made it known that he is a fan of Greitens personally, he basically thinks that the best move for his dad strategically is to just sit back and let the primary unfold without jumping in for anyone,” a source familiar with Don Jr.’s thinking on the primary told The Daily Beast.

“The only thing that would shift his view would be if [Mitch] McConnell decided to intervene in the primary and unload millions against Greitens,” the source added.

McConnell is mostly staying out of it, though he did tell reporters Wednesday that the RINO hunting ad was “something voters in the Missouri Republican primary need to take a look at.”

While sitting out the primary all together is one option, those who have spoken to Trump say the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner also wants to avoid a repeat of the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race, when Trump never endorsed, and GOP rising star Glenn Youngkin took back the governor’s mansion in an increasingly blue state.

With Trump on the sidelines, some Trump allies seem to believe it’s open season on Greitens. His checkered past, marked with allegations of beating his ex-wife and children—and being charged with felony invasion of privacy after he threatened an ex-lover with revenge porn—is beyond the pale, these sources indicated.

There is “not a need for Eric Greitens to be in public life,” an influential Trumpworld figure told The Daily Beast, while suggesting the candidate take some time off and sort out his personal life.

Select Trumpworld figures are also weighing how nominating Greitens might affect GOP chances of taking back the Senate.