Mandela Barnes compared 'God, country, and guns' to ISIS rhetoric

Wisconsin Democratic Senate nominee Mandela Barnes' questionable social media posts are coming to light again less than two weeks before election day.

Just two days after Islamic State terrorists killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015, Barnes tweeted: "There are people in the legislature who feel a caliphate threat is real in America. I try to remind them of their theocratic votes."  

Barnes, who was a state representative at the time, tweeted one minute later: "God, country, and guns is as dangerous of a rhetoric here as it is over there."

Barnes, now Wisconsin's lieutenant governor, came under fire last week after tweets resurfaced of him praising Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and expressing how he wished he could have met Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

He is challenging incumbent GOP Sen. Ron Johnson this election cycle of his seat. 

Other tweets uncovered by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel show that after Donald Trump became president in 2016, Barnes asked whether the election was "rigged." One month after Trump was sworn in, Barnes tweeted: "Donald Trump is a Russian spy. Believe me."

In response to a tweet in 2019 that claimed Washington was one of the top presidents, Barnes said: "Yeah. I mean, if slave owning is your thing, have at it!"

Barnes spokesperson Maddy McDaniel defended her boss's old tweets in a statement to the Journal Sentinel.

"Twitter is not the place to have nuanced policy discussions, and unlike Ron Johnson, Lt. Gov. Barnes has always been clear with Wisconsinites that he will fight to lower costs for working families and ensure everyone has an equal shot at the American Dream," she said.

The RealClearPolitics polling average places incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson with a +3.3 lead over Barnes.