The Week on Politwoops: Flying over Colombia, #theft, doing it for the Vine and more

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An image of a lush landscape seen from above that was deleted from the official Twitter account of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.
Image via Politwoops.

Welcome to this week’s review of notable deleted tweets caught and archived by the Sunlight Foundation’s Politwoops project. We start with a deletion from the official account of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, that said, “Flying over beautiful #Colombia” with the image seen to the right. There are no similar tweets on his official Twitter account or mention of a trip to Colombia. It could just be a vacationing staffer who is mistakenly logged into the member’s account, but I have yet to receive a response from his office.

Champ Edmunds, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Montana who you may remember from last week’s Politwoops roundup where he discovered a backpack full of money while airing out the scene of a clogged toilet, makes another Politwoops appearance this week when he deleted, “My dark green 2002 Dodge Crew Cab truck with a REVDUP plate has been stolen! If you see it, please call the Msla PD or MCSO. Thanks! #theft.” The tweet was deleted after 7 hours and while I hoped the truck was located, I noticed the Missoula Police Department tweeted, “Stolen from 2000 blk Mullan Rd: 2002 Dodge Ram 1/2 ton, dk grn in color w/rusted rear pass door. MT Lic “REVDUP”. Call 9-1-1 if you see it.” I called both the Edmunds campaign and the Missoula Police Department about the status of the REVDUP truck case, but was not able to find someone who knew what happened.

In what was likely a copy-paste mix up, the official Twitter account for Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., deleted a link to the YouTube embedded to the left after being up for just 4 seconds. There are no other mentions of this video or other Vine compilations from his official House account.

Finally, Gov. Susana Martinez, R-N.M., deleted a retweet of a Buzzfeed reporter who linked to a Mother Jones cover story about Gov. Martinez that included profanity-laden audio recordings. The now deleted retweet said “RT @mckaycoppins: I wonder what % of prominent pols would come off looking good when secret recordings of them were selectively leaked.” She deleted the retweet after 14 seconds and replaced it with a tweet saying “Stand with me and show the D.C. liberal media their desperate attacks have no place in NM http://bit.ly/1eQf7Bq #StandwithSusana #NMPol.” The deletion caught by Politwoops was picked up by Mother Jones and Slate.