The Week on Politwoops: musical regrets, bulk campaign deletions and more

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A deleted photo from the account of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and archived on Politwoops.
Deletion via Politwoops.

In this week’s roundup of notable deleted tweets from U.S. politicians archived by Politwoops, we’ll look at a couple musically inclined deletions, an accidentally shared b-roll ad, a rash of old campaign tweets that tried to be scrubbed and more.

We start with a deletion from the campaign account for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that said “Alan Simpson Band playing My Old Kentucky Home” with the image seen to the right. The deletion was removed after eight minutes and appears to be taken in the midst of a fundraiser called “Rand Paul’s Barnburner & BBQ” for the Rand Paul Victory Committee. His account did not return multiple attempts for comment and, as always, we’ll update this post if we hear back.

Another musical tweet that ended up in Politwoops was from the campaign account of Brian Nestande, a California state Assemblyman and Republican candidate for Congress. His account tweeted, “#NowPlaying The Doors on #Spotify …come on baby light my fire!” and then removed it an hour later. Curiously, another tweet from the same time saying “#NowPlaying Gypsy Kings on #Spotify” was not deleted.

In hushed Politwoops news this week, David Ige, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Hawaii, deleted a tweet after four hours that said “Meet David Ige” with a link to silent video montage of campaign ad b-roll embedded to the left. This video is likely being made available so that outside groups can utilize footage for “uncoordinated” campaign ads and Politwoops caught North Carolina Senate candidate in Thom Tillis doing this back in February. Ige did not return a request for comment.

On Wednesday, the campaign account of Rep. Vance McAllister, R-La., deleted 38 tweets that were nearly a year old. Later that same day the campaign account of Rep. Lacy Clay, D-Mo., removed 26 old tweets. It’s unclear why either politician did this as the messages don’t appear to share a common theme and it’s hardly the first time that Politwoops is thrust into the position as a campaign archive. Previous mass deletions from campaign accounts include when Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, deleted 95 tweets, when Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., deleted 108 tweets and, of course, when Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a failed Democratic congressional candidate in South Carolina deleted more than 500 tweets.

Other deletions of note this week include two from Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., that were sent during her debate with her opponent Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., that said Cassidy “has voted for 97% of the laws President Obama has passed in this Congress.” Thomas Ravenel, a Senate challenger in South Carolina, deleted a tweet about his opponent, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that said “@GrahamBlog Graham is so afraid to debate me. We all know he’s a chicken little but why be so transparent about your cowardice?” His account did not respond to a request for comment.

Enjoy your weekend and please shoot us an email if you find that Politwoops is missing any Twitter accounts!