Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth has refused to delete a tweet that included the Pensacola shooter’s manifesto, despite being suspended on Twitter for doing so.
Hegseth, 39, who is a former Army National Guard officer, was temporarily banned on the social media platform over the weekend for sharing the manifesto of Saudi national Mohammed Alshamrani, who is accused of shooting and killing three people and injuring 12 more after opening fire at Navy Station Pensacola last week. The FBI is working under the “presumption” that the shooting “was an act of terrorism.” Hegseth’s suspension on the platform will go on until he deletes the tweet, though he has refused to do so.
“If Twitter can ban me for this, they can ban anyone for anything. I fought terrorists on the battlefield, and now I’m fighting for free speech (and against political correctness) to expose radical Islamist views. People deserve to know. I will not delete the tweet, and plan to fight this,” Hegseth told the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
Twitter previously stood by its decision to suspend Hegseth temporarily, noting that posting the manifesto is a violation of Twitter’s rules. A Twitter representative told the Washington Examiner that it enforces its policies “judiciously and impartially” for all Twitter users.
According to Twitter’s “terrorism and violent extremism policy,” no user is allowed to “threaten or promote terrorism or violent extremism.” It lists four examples that violate the policy:
- engaging in or promoting acts on behalf of a terrorist organization or violent extremist group;
- recruiting for a terrorist organization or violent extremist group;
- providing or distributing services (e.g., financial, media/propaganda) to further a terrorist organization’s or violent extremist group’s stated goals; and
- using the insignia or symbols of terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups to promote them.
Andy Ngo of the Post Millennial was also suspended for tweeting out the shooter’s manifesto, although he later deleted the tweet and was reinstated on the platform.
Hegseth’s refusal to delete the tweet is another example of Fox disagreeing with the social media platform. Fox hasn’t tweeted from the network’s main account for more than a year to protest Fox News host Tucker Carlson being doxxed on the platform. The network was unhappy with Twitter’s response to the dox and the subsequent protest at Carlson’s home.
