State Sen. David Schultheis said he didn’t intend for a Twitter post accusing President Barack Obama of “flying the U.S. plane right into the ground” and ending with “let’s roll” as a threat or a reference to United Flight 93, which crashed during the 2001 terrorist attacks.

“Let’s roll” reportedly were the last words of Todd Beamer before he and other passengers tried to gain control of their hijacked jet. The plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field short of its intended target.

The tweet stirred ire and some support for the Colorado Springs Republican, whose standard eschewal of political correctness has earned him criticism in the past.

Schultheis’ full tweet Tuesday was: “Don’t for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying the U.S. plane right into the ground at full speed. Let’s roll.”

He said he was angry about the president’s fiscal policies but didn’t mean to compare him to the hijackers. The senator’s reputation for strong speech gave readers the wrong idea, he said.

” ‘Let’s roll.’ It’s a comment people use all the time any more. ‘Let’s get going. Let’s move on. Let’s make major changes,’ ” Schultheis said. “I can see it now. But you’re busy doing jillions of things during the day. You sometimes don’t analyze every single word.”

State Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, demanded Wednesday that Schultheis retract his statement, calling it “appalling.”

Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, agreed the statement was inappropriate.

“Dave shouldn’t have gone there,” Penry said.

The tweet garnered angry posts on the liberal ColoradoPols.com blog, which first reported it, and was picked up by the Talking Points Memo blog.

Despite some interpretations, the statement would not constitute a threat on the president under Secret Service guidelines.

Ed Kowalski, a director for the New York-based 9/11 Families for a Secure America, said Schultheis “clearly” was referring to Flight 93. And while he disagrees with many of Obama’s policies, he said that’s no reason to evoke Sept. 11 imagery.

“Let’s not cheapen what happened on Sept. 11 by making random and/or ill-fated comparisons to current policy,” Kowalski said. “It’s probably a poor choice of words and clearly a poor comparison in terms of what happened then compared to what is happening now.”

Colorado House Speaker Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, said he’s willing to give Schultheis the benefit of the doubt on “let’s roll,” but the senator should be more civil when discussing the president.

“He does have a history of saying things most of us think go beyond the pale of what’s acceptable,” Carroll said. “And it’s disappointing he doesn’t have any better way of expressing himself than staking out the most extreme positions he can find.”

Schultheis voted in February against a bill requiring pregnant women to be tested for AIDS to prevent spreading the disease to the children. He said then that infected children would set examples for women against sexual promiscuity.

The senator railed in January against public service announcements in Spanish encouraging people to fasten seat belts.