Ammon Bundy's Twitter Account Is Probably Not Ammon Bundy
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A Twitter account some believe to be operated by Ammon Bundy, a spokesperson for the armed band of militiamen currently holding a federally owned building in southeastern Oregon, faced criticism after comparing the anti-government group to the civil rights icon Rosa Parks early Wednesday morning.
Related: Federal Government Weighs Options To Expel Oregon Militiamen
The tweet, which was picked up by numerous media outlets, compares the militia's struggle against what they see as oppressive and illegal government control, to the civil rights movement half a century ago, which helped to secure a free and equal existence for Black Americans.
But the person operating the account is unknown, and Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher and known anti-government activist Cliven Bundy, denied using the social media platform. Reached by phone Wednesday morning, Bundy said he did not make the Rosa Parks comparison.
"I do not have a tweeter [sic] account," he told ATTN:.
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Asked whether he knew who might be behind it, Bundy said that he had no idea.
Reporters on the scene at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge also said that Bundy had not sent out tweets that were being attributed to him.
Despite Bundy's dubious links to the @Ammon_Bundy account, the militiaman was taken to task online for the Parks comparison. As the New York Daily News' Sean King wrote:
Throwing a football doesn’t make you Tom Brady. Opening up a computer doesn’t make you Steve Jobs. Wiping juice off of the counter doesn’t make you the Brawny paper towel man.
Ammon, you are no Rosa Parks. You are among the most privileged men in the world. Nobody is really even forcefully asking you to leave, man. Do you even have a job?
Parks was an unarmed Black woman who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger during a ride on a Montgomery City bus in 1955. She was willing to face arrest against legally sanctioned discrimination, TIME reports.
Wednesday now marks the fifth day of the militiamen's occupation of the wildlife refuge outpost.
