Twitter caves under pressure after blocking Mitch McConnell's campaign account for posting video of foul-mouthed protester threatening HIM

  • Twitter blocked McConnell's campaign account Wednesday morning
  • Firm said it was for posting 'video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell
  • Campaign shared video of profane protester's rant outside his home
  • McConnell is recuperating after a shoulder injury 
  • Local Black Lives Matter leader wished McConnell had 'broken his little, raggedy, wrinkled-ass neck 
  • 'Just stab the m----- f----- in the heart'
  • Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently tweeted an image of McConnell supporters posing with a cardboard cutout of her 

Twitter relented and unlocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign account, after 'more closely' reviewing the decision to suspend it for posting a profane video of a protester threatening the senator.

The firm had come under fire by powerful Republican campaign committees, including the Trump campaign, which threatened to suspend advertising over the issue.

McConnell's campaign gloated with a GIF image from The Shawshank Redemption film, showing a bare-chested McConnell looking joyously upward in the rain.

'Victory!!! Thank you to EVERYONE for helping #FreeMitch,' along with a fundraising appeal. 

McConnell's campaign gloated with a GIF image from the 'Shawshank Redemption' film after Twitter backed down

McConnell's campaign gloated with a GIF image from the 'Shawshank Redemption' film after Twitter backed down

According to a statement tweeted out by Twitter communications: 'After multiple appeals from affected users and Leader McConnell’s team confirming their intent to highlight the threats for public discussion, we have reviewed this case more closely.'

 The company added: 'Going forward, the video will be visible on the service with a sensitive media interstitial and only in cases where the Tweet content does not otherwise violate the Twitter Rules.' 

Twitter said the account had initially been blocked because it had a violent threat against McConnell, a 'clear violation' of its rules. 

President Trump also came to McConnell's defense Friday, saying: 'We are looking at that right now. We have a lot of these companies coming in a little while. We're going to be very tough with them. They treat conservatives very unfairly.' 

However the president quickly veered in his remarks into an attack on Hollywood, which he accused of making 'racist' films. 

The company's turnaround came after Trump's presidential campaign and other Republican Party entities joined in a boycott of Twitter advertising after the platform blocked McConnell's campaign over a recent post. 

McConnell's camp was furious Thursday after Twitter temporarily suspended the @Team_Mitch account after it posted profane video of threats by a protester against the Kentucky senator.

The foul-mouthed protests occurred outside McConnell's Louisville home, at a time when the powerful Senate leader is under pressure for blocking gun control legislation dealing with background checks and a potential assault weapons ban. 

Protesters held a weekend event outside his home, yelling out 'murder turtle' and holding signs labeling him 'Massacre Mitch.'

McConnell had recently experienced a fall, shattering is shoulder. 

Scroll down for video 

McConnell is at home recovering from a fractured shoulder after a fall while the Senate is in recess.  Protesters want him to respond to the Dayton and El Paso shootings

McConnell is at home recovering from a fractured shoulder after a fall while the Senate is in recess.  Protesters want him to respond to the Dayton and El Paso shootings

Richard Walters, the chief of staff of the Republican National Committee, tweeted Thursday that the party and the Trump campaign stand with McConnell and the Senate campaign arm and that 'any future ad $ either organization was planning to spend with @Twitter has been halted until they address this disgusting bias.'

It is unlikely the McConnell campaign would have spent much on Twitter ads in August. However, the Trump camp had 'forecast' between $300,000 and $500,000, according to the New York Post.

But McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden complained that McConnell's account should be blocked 'for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell,' The Hill reported. 

A campaign source told DailyMail.com the block was still in effect as of Thursday. 

The Senate GOP's campaign arm blasted the move and announced it was suspending Twitter ads – although it did not say how much it had planned to spend in August.

'Twitter's hostile actions toward Leader McConnell's campaign are outrageous, and we will not tolerate it,' National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Jesse Hunt said, Politico reported. 'The NRSC will suspend all spending with Twitter until further notice. We will not spend our resources on a platform that silences conservatives,' Hunt said.  

 Wrote Parker Hamilton Poling, executive director of the National Republican Campaign Committee: 'I have directed the @NRCC to immediately halt all spending with @Twitter until they correct their inexcusable targeting of @Team_Mitch. We will stand firmly with our friends against anti-conservative bias.'

During the protests, local Black Lives Matter leader Chanelle Helm can be heard saying McConnell 'should have broken his little raggedy, wrinkled-(expletive) neck,' the Louisville Courier-Journal reported, identifying Helm.

A man then makes reference to a voodoo doll, prompting Helm to say: 'Just stab the m----- f----- in the heart.' 

McConnell's camp aired profane video that included threats from protesters outside his home

McConnell's camp aired profane video that included threats from protesters outside his home

Fox News also ran footage of the protest

Fox News also ran footage of the protest

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's re-election campaign team tweeted out this image of five tombstones, including one that read 'R.I.P. Amy McGrath' and had the death date listed as the 2020 elections. McGrath is McConnell's Democratic challenger for the election

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's re-election campaign team tweeted out this image of five tombstones, including one that read 'R.I.P. Amy McGrath' and had the death date listed as the 2020 elections. McGrath is McConnell's Democratic challenger for the election

LOUISVILLE, KY - AUGUST 06: Activists demonstrate outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on August 6, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. Protestors from Kentucky March For Our Lives held a candlelight vigil and called on McConnell to pass legislation expanding background checks for firearms purchases in the wake of shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio

LOUISVILLE, KY - AUGUST 06: Activists demonstrate outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on August 6, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. Protestors from Kentucky March For Our Lives held a candlelight vigil and called on McConnell to pass legislation expanding background checks for firearms purchases in the wake of shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio

Rep. John Yarmouth (D-KY) speaks to activists outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on August 6, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky

Rep. John Yarmouth (D-KY) speaks to activists outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on August 6, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky

McConnell has embraced the 'grim reaper' label applied by his opponents

McConnell has embraced the 'grim reaper' label applied by his opponents

Twitter blocked a tweet and posted its policies online

Twitter blocked a tweet and posted its policies online

A man then makes reference to a voodoo doll, prompting a protester to say: 'Just stab the m----- f----- in the heart'

A man then makes reference to a voodoo doll, prompting a protester to say: 'Just stab the m----- f----- in the heart'

Twitter said the account was blocked because it 'violated our violent threats policy, specifically threats involving physical safety.'  

 It was just the latest social media clash for the McConnell camp. 

 On Tuesday, McConnell's campaign trolled Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she voiced fury at a viral image of a life-sized cutout of her being pawed at and choked by his supporters.

'Team Mitch in no way condones any aggressive, suggestive, or demeaning act toward life-sized cardboard cutouts of any gender,' McConnell campaign spokesman Kevin Golden said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

McConnell's camp noted that staffers for then-President Barack Obama's staffers behaved similarly with a cutout of Hillary Clinton 11 years ago, while other chalked outrage over the incident up to ­hypersensitivity. 

The picture was publicly posted by a vocal Mitch McConnell supporter from Kentucky who tagged his campaign team on Instagram. 

'These young men are not campaign staff, they're high schoolers and it's incredible that the national media has sought to once again paint a target on their backs rather than report real, and significant news in our country,'  Golden said.   

On Monday, McConnell's campaign team posted a photo of tombstones featuring the name of his Democratic opponent Amy McGrath.

His 'Team Mitch' re-election campaign team tweeted out the image taken at a campaign event at Fancy Farm, Kentucky over the weekend. 

The image featured five tombstones, including one that read 'R.I.P. Amy McGrath' and had the death date listed as the 2020 elections. 

Merrick Garland, who was President Obama's final nominee to the Supreme Court but was upended due to McConnell, and Kentucky's Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergarn Grimes also appeared on the tombstones. 

The final two featured 'socialism' and the 'Green New Deal'.   

McGrath, McConnell's Democratic challenger for a seat up in 2020, is a former Marine fighter pilot of Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran. 

She lashed out at the Republican after his campaign team posted the tombstone photo soon after the deadly massacre in El Paso, Texas. 

'Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging,' she tweeted. 

'It's symptomatic of what is wrong with our system. I'm fine with the ordinary rough and tumble of politics, but this strikes me as beyond the pale.'

Democrats are demanding McConnell bring the Senate back into session to respond to the El Paso and Dayton massacres. 

Twitter's action comes amid a new White House push to try to combat perceived bias from Big Tech. Politico reported Wednesday that White House aides are developing a possible executive order to deal with the issue, which Trump raised at a summit with conservative online personalities.