The Week on Politwoops: an Obamacare math and messaging muck up, a plea for a new font and more

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An image deleted and caught by the Sunlight Foundation's Politwoops project that was circulated by many House GOP members that said, "One out of three enrollees in the federal marketplace have not paid their first month's premiums."
Deleted image via Politwoops.

We start off the week’s roundup of notable deleted tweets archived by Politwoops with a flurry of politicians attempting to get their numbers straight on how many people who signed up for Obamacare have paid. The complete numbers have not been released, but the Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee recently released a report claiming one third of enrollees had not paid based on partial data from April 15th on the federal exchange. Spokespeople for the White House and Health & Human Services quickly disputed the numbers, but offered no data of their own about enrollees who have paid.

The House GOP circulated talking points and images to share on social media that were echoed by their members, but many politicians are attempting to remove them only to be caught and have their messages archived by Politwoops. Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, deleted a tweet saying, “Only 2 out of 3 enrollees have paid. #Obamacare #ObamaFail” and Rep. Judge Carter, R-Texas, deleted a tweet from around the same time that said, “Only 1 out of 3 enrollees have paid #ObamaFail.” Both deletions came from their official House accounts yesterday and were never replaced with a similar message. In the last few hours, a number of other House Republicans joined in deleting messages on this topic, many with the image seen above in this post. Those attempting to cover their messaging tracks include Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, both deleted tweets about the Obamacare enrollees who have paid with the image included above, but they got they got mixed up and said one out of three enrollees have paid while the image contradicted them by saying one out of three enrollees have not paid. Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., and Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., made the same mistake but their tweets remain up on their official accounts and preserver through responses like “Oh my! Such a #mathfail by a congresswoman” and “funny…pic you posted is calling you a liar.”

A deleted image caught by Politwoops from a gubernatorial candidate in Maryland.
Deleted image via Politwoops.

On a lighter note, the official account of Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., deleted a tweet calling out a senate candidate and fellow Republican that said, “Daer @DrGregBrannon I will donate to you if you start sending emails in a different, non-circa-early-90’s font. Please please please.” The plea for a better font from the campaign of Dr. Greg Brannon in North Carolina never reappeared on any of the accounts associated with Rep. Fincher and it’s not known what font caused such angst. The campaign twitter account of Ron George, a Republican running for Governor in Maryland, deleted the picture seen to the left with a message saying, “One of my fav extra roles was #ChancesAre w/ @RobertDowneyJr Today he runs Hollywood & I’m running 4 Gov of #MD #tbt.” This deletion may be a bit of surprise because according to a recent article in the Baltimore Sun, he is eager to discuss this topic:

With a little prompting, George confided to The Baltimore Sun that he once shared the silver screen with mega-star Robert Downey Jr. They spent a day palling around at the old Rockville courthouse while George played a bit part in the 1989 romantic comedy “Chances Are.”

Finally the campaign account for Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, made a slight messaging change by deleting a tweet that said, “RT if you agree that Americans still want answers #Benghazi #demandtoknow” and replaced it with a version lacking #demandtoknow, which is a hashtag relating to the promotion of the new Godzilla movie. If you like the Politwoops project and want to improve our coverage, please send us an email if you notice anyone we’re missing!