The Week on Politwoops: A stump, call for an apology, YOLO and Barrel Man

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A top down photo of a tree stump in an unusual shape that was deleted from the Twitter account of Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., and caught by Politwoops.
Deleted image via Politwoops

Welcome to a rare two-week review of the deleted tweets from U.S. politicians caught by our Politwoops project.

Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., deleted a message from his campaign account that read “Gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghcjfon########” and included the image seen to the right. The unusual image and even more unusual message was deleted after 2 minutes and never reappeared.

Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., deleted a message before the State of the Union that said, “First thing President Obama needs to do in his State of the Union address: Apologize to the American people.” The tweet came from his Senate campaign account and no similar calls for apologies came from any of his public accounts. President Obama did not kick off his speech with an apology, but perhaps Rep. Cotton could try the Sunlight Foundation’s State of the Union Machine to try to generate one.

Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., deleted a response from his personal account that simply said “@RachelLaing YOLO.” He removed it in just 23 seconds and it’s unclear what he was responding to from Rachel Laing, who in her Twitter bio says she is a communications strategist. YOLO, an acronym for “you only live once,” was popularized by the rapper Drake, who took his recent appearance on Saturday Night Live to apologize because he, “did not realize your annoying friends and coworkers would use it so much.”

Side-by-side photos of Seattle Seahawks' Seahulk super fan and the Denver Broncos' Barrel Man super fan.
Deleted image via Politwoops

The staff running the Twitter account for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., ignited quite a controversey before the Super Bowl when they tweeted, “Dear @SenBennetCO: #EnoughSaid. #12thMAN @Seahawks @Broncos #SB48 #BEASTMODE” with the image seen to the left. It appears that Sen. Murray’s office was unaware that the beloved Denver Broncos’ super fan, Tim McKernan, better known as Barrel Man, passed away in his sleep in 2009. While the congressional delegations of Colorado and Washington enjoyed good-natured taunting, this took it to a new level. Denver fans immediately pointed out he had passed away and even the Seattle Weekly, Sen. Murray’s home alt-weekly, weighed in to give her the “Dick Move of the Week award.” Her staff deleted the tweet after an hour and issued an apology. The Denver Westword, a Colorado alt-weekly, noted that following the apology, “friendly Twitter trash talk promised by the Murray troops has ceased entirely.”

The latest additions to the Politwoops roster include the accounts of Democrat Clay Aiken, who recently announced his campaign to represent North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District and French Hill, a Republican who is running for the 2nd Congressional District of Arkansas. Please send us a note if you notice any candidates or politicians we’re missing!