Twitter briefly suspended a right-wing speaker famous for his heroic role in the 2012 consulate attack in Benghazi after he engaged in a heated debate over whether Barack Obama should be credited with killing Osama Bin Laden.
Kris Paronto, a former US Army ranger, became famous after the Benghazi attack, during which he and several other CIA contractors rescued diplomatic personnel at the US consulate. He became an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s response to the situation, in which he lost two of his comrades.
On Sunday, Paronto may have added a new grudge against the former US president, getting suspended by Twitter apparently for getting in a debate about Obama’s speech in Champaign, Illinois on Friday. The debate was started not by Paronto but rather Robert O’Neill, the SEAL Team Six member credited with killing Osama Bin Laden in May 2011.
O’Neill posted an excerpt from the Obama speech, in which he berated President Donald Trump for failing to criticize right-wing violence in Centerville. “How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?” Obama said. O’Neill remarked: “Nazis are bad. Now try saying ‘Radical Islam…’”
Among the responses to O’Neill was that of anti-Trump account ‘Secret Society Alumnus: “He kinda killed Osama Bin Laden, so…” The author later acknowledged that he or she didn’t know who O’Neill was, as the gaffe was met with a barrage of sarcasm and outrage.
Nah, I had to Google you, who know the the name of every soldier engaged in the war against radical Islam? ,tbh following your creed no one shouldI know ur name? Any how, after googling you I understand you have 1. hand knowledge of the order commander in chief gave you.Kill OBN?
— ❎🇺🇸Secret Society Alumnus🇺🇸❎ (@itmustend_) 8 сентября 2018 г.
Paronto was among the many commenters about the gaffe and made a generalization about supporters of the former president. His now-deleted tweet about it read: “Thank you for verifying that BHusseinObama worship and TDS causes liberalists to skip retard and go straight to potato.” The mockery apparently sparked complaints, since Twitter suspended Paronto’s account, he reported on his Instagram feed.
The Twitter account was later unfrozen, with Paronto without hesitation posting a screenshot of his tweet and branding ‘Secret Society Alumnus’ a hate group. If anything, he was further convinced that the microblogging service has anti-conservative bias.
Paronto’s animosity towards Obama is difficult to miss. On Sunday, he told Fox News he wanted to “reach through the screen and just grab him – grab him and choke him” during the Friday speech. Pete Hegseth, the Fox host, then cautioned him against threatening a former head of state, who has lifetime protection from the Secret Service. Paronto seemed unimpressed, saying: “It doesn’t get yourself away from saying comments when my friends died in front of me.”
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