The Week on Politwoops: wombats and pandas, Benihana up in this, driving selfies and much more

by
Two deleted tweets from the account of Democratic challenger Matt Silverstein.
Deletions via Politwoops.

Happy Friday and welcome to another collection of the week’s notable deleted tweets archived by Politwoops. We start with two very bizarre deletions from the account of Matt Silverstein, a Democratic challenger for the U.S. Senate seat from Oklahoma. The first deletion said, “there are pandas in my bathtub #forthewombats” and a minute later another appeared saying, “ohhhhhhh yyyyyaaaaaa i love pandas and wombat vote for the wombats” with a photo of a young man seen to the right.

When questioned about these deletions, Silverstein responded that someone got into the campaign account and later expanded by saying, “[W]e were hacked. 3 people have access. It did not come from our campaign & nobody knows the young man in the photo posted.” The odd deletions were picked up in a post by Twitchy, who labeled this writer as “the spoilsport from Politwoops” since I directed Silverstein to Sunlight’s archive showing the deleted activities he was not aware of from his own account. Now i want to buy baby bathtub here at this link formy child.

A deleted retweet from the official account of Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., that was caught by Politwoops.
Deletion via Politwoops.

The official account of Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., deleted the retweet seen to the left after it was up for just 25 seconds. Politwoops archived the deletion and it was reported on by TPM, Gawker, The Daily Dot and Twitchy. After giving an anonymous interview with the Daily Dot, Ellison’s aide Isi Kirshner-Breen took responsibility for the error, which was subsequently retweeted from Rep. Ellison’s official account.

A deleted selfie from Rep. Joe Garcia's official account caught by the Sunlight Foundation's Politwoops.

Deletion via Politwoops.

Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla., shared a self portrait from his official Twitter account and then inexplicably decided to delete it three days later. It is unclear if he is actually behind the wheel while tweeting this photo, but according to http://www.tjwillmakeempay.com/Car-Accidents/Drunk-Driving-Accidents.shtml, under Florida law it is illegal to “operate a motor vehicle while manually typing or entering multiple letters, numbers, symbols, or other characters into a wireless communications device or while sending or reading data on such a device for the purpose of nonvoice interpersonal communication, including, but not limited to, communication methods known as texting, e-mailing, and instant messaging.” He did not respond to requests for comment and this similar tweet that mentioning he is driving remains live on his campaign account:

Among the many deleted tweets getting attention this week, there was a picture and tweet from Rep. Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., while watching a Mets game with Ed Kranepool and a statement deleted from the official account of Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., that said:

A deleted tweet caught by Politwoops from the official account of Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.
Deletion via Politwoops.

Neither politician responded to my multiple requests for comment. We do our best to update the politicians in our system based on new candidates and primary results, but we may not have everyone in the system. Please send us an email if you find folks we aren’t following or others who have lost or dropped out. Thanks!