Steve Cox, an independent leftist candidate for California’s 39th House seat, wrote on Twitter that anyone who does not wear a mask or practices social distancing should be shot.
Cox, who claims to be running on a platform opposed to both traditional political parties, replied to Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire earlier this week on Twitter, who suggested that COVID is here to stay and that people should just live their lives “while you can.” This was not appreciated by Cox, who launched into a violent tirade on Twitter. “Whenever anyone says ‘we all die from something’… to justify not taking precautions to help protect others in this pandemic, we should be allowed to shoot them,” Cox tweeted. “Why are you crying? We all die from something. For you, it’s that bullet in your gut.”
Whenever anyone says “we all die from something” (or a variation thereof) to justify not taking precautions to help protect others in this pandemic, we should be allowed to shoot them.
“Why are you crying? We all die from something. For you, it’s that bullet in your gut.” https://t.co/XD02HvYlHk
— Steve Cox (@RealSteveCox) August 9, 2021
Walsh in response called his response “psychotic,” to which Cox attempted to defend his tweet, which he pinned on top of his Twitter profile at the time of writing, as simply being a case of “self-defense,” ensuring that he was “defending his loved ones” by speaking about his right to shoot anyone he saw as affecting the health of those he cared about.
It’s not. It’s self-defense and defending my loved ones.
— Steve Cox (@RealSteveCox) August 9, 2021
Instead of defending his admission on Twitter post, Cox instead focused on “debunking” claims that he said anyone taking the vaccine should be shot. “It was about avoiding large gatherings, wearing masks, socially distancing, etc,” Cox wrote. “The tweet I quoted didn’t mention vaccines. I didn’t mention vaccines. Yet the narrative is that I said I want to shoot people who aren’t vaccinated,” he continued. However, Cox never specified as such in his initial tweet, and neither did Walsh, meaning until the clarification, it could be considered a fair interpretation.
Cox describes himself as a libertarian, but on the leftist side of the spectrum, specifically splitting himself from the Libertarian Party, saying on Twitter that he wouldn’t feel bad if Spike Cohen, the 2020 Libertarian VP candidate, died. Despite claiming that the real libertarians are not right-wing, he has also repeatedly retweeted many hard-left individuals, including those with a Communist hammer and sickle in their display name. Cox presents himself on his website as an independent non-partisan candidate, “not of the left or of the right,” despite that clearly not being the case.
This isn’t the first time that Cox has caused controversy on Twitter. In October last year, Cox hit the headlines for tweeting that he hoped that both President Donald Trump and Joe Biden died after they contracted COVID-19, although clarified that he didn’t want Melania to die, as she “seems nice.” He later bragged on his Facebook page that Newsweek “accurately reflected” his views.
National File reached out to Twitter before the publication of this article regarding Cox’s tweet and the fact he wanted many people, including users of their site, shot for engaging in lawful activities, asking the Big Tech platform if anyone had reported the tweet in question, and whether it violated any of their rules regarding violent threats or the glorification of violence.
In June of last year, conservative commentator Michelle Malkin was suspended for 12 hours for tweeting that “violent criminal looters should be shot.” National File has asked Twitter if there was any substantive difference between the two tweets, especially noting that Malkin’s tweet invoked the right of self-defence against persons and property from criminals, while Cox encouraged the killing of law-abiding, non-violent citizens. National File did not receive a response on any of the queries before the time of publication, but will update this article with any comment from Twitter.