Donald Trump tweets video of 'cowboys for Trump' supporter saying 'the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat' despite Republicans already apologizing for the threat

On the heels of the U.S. surpassing 100,000 coronavirus deaths, President Trump tweeted out a video showing a New Mexico Republican telling a crowd 'the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.' 

The man, Couy Griffin, is the head of 'Cowboys for Trump' and immediately said he didn't mean it in the literal sense, before leaning into the sentiment in an interview with The Daily Beast. 

The week-old video clip had already been panned by the New Mexico Republican Party that said in a May 20 tweet, 'any statements, whether in jest or serious about harming another individual are just plain wrong.' 

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Cowboys for Trump founder Cuoy Griffin (left) got a supportive tweet from President Trump (right) despite being criticized by members of his own party for telling a group of anti-lockdown protesters in New Mexico that 'the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat' 

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At midnight Thursday, President Trump supportively tweeted the 'Cowboys for Trump' account, which featured a video of founder Couy Griffin uttering 'the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat' 

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In the full-length video, Couy Griffin (pictured) goes on to say that he means Democrats should be dead in 'the political sense,' though later repeated the comments to a Daily Beast reporter and then suggested several Democratic governors should be shot or hung 

Upon seeing Cuoy Griffin's remarks last week, the New Mexico Republican Party put out a statement via tweet saying that 'any statements, whether in jest or serious about harming another individual are just plain wrong' 

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Cuoy Griffin had tried to get supporters to label The Daily Beast's reporting of his remarks as 'fake news.' The Daily Beast had accurately quoted him and then described his effort to clean up his comments. He then repeated what he had said to the group to the reporter  

But at the stroke of midnight Thursday, Trump tweeted out the clip anyway, adding 'Thank you Cowboys. See you in New Mexico!' 

Griffin had reshared the video of his remarks Wednesday night in an effort to get it labeled by like-minded Twitter users as 'fake news.' 

'The news is fake,' he wrote. 'How long will you believe the fake news lies.'  

He was tweeting in response to The Daily Beast's Twitter account sharing the initial report and interview with Griffin headlined 'Anti-Lockdown Protesters Now Calling for Dems to Die.' 

The story, penned by Will Sommer, detailed how Griffin had told a crowd gathered at a New Mexico church, 'I’ve come to a place where I’ve come to a conclusion where the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.' 

Sommer then wrote, 'Griffin, a county commissioner in the state, hastily added that he only meant Democrats who were dead in "the political sense" - an effort at cleanup he repeated in an interview with The Daily Beast on Tuesday.' 

In that interview, Griffin told Sommer that he 'could've chosen a different verbiage, you know.' 

'I guess I need to be more careful when I choose the words that I speak,' he continued. 'But you know, it’s just so hypocritical of the left how they’re blowing this up, like I’m some hate-speech murderer.' 

But later in the interview, Griffin repeated the offending remark - 'the only good Democrat is a dead one' and he brought up that Democratic Govs. Ralph Northam and Gretchen Whitmer, who have both been targeted by Trump, could be guity of treason over their coronavirus lockdown orders. 

Griffin indicated that he believed treason was punishable by death with what he said next. 

'You get to pick your poison: you either go before a firing squad, or you get the end of the rope,' Griffin told Sommer.   

Sommer asked Griffin if anti-lockdown protesters are considering violence to make their message heard. 

'I'll tell you what, partner, as far as I'm concerned, there's not an option that's not on the table,' Griffin replied to the reporter.    

On Wednesday, Griffin tried to play take-backsies with his comments, labeling Sommer's reporting as 'fake news.' 

In his tweet that the president pushed out, Griffin name-checked Sommer and most of New Mexico's Democrats in Congress, including Reps. Deb Haaland and Ben Ray Luján and Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich. 

Griffin also tagged a number of New Mexico-based GOP and Democratic groups.  

After leaving Florida Wednesday following a cancelled SpaceX-NASA rocket launch, the president spent a considerable time tweeting about topics other than the coronavirus. 

On Thursday morning he tweeted about the 100,000 dead Americans.