The Week on Politwoops: oversight committee ices ALS tweets and more
This week’s roundup of deleted tweets from politicians caught in Politwoops starts with a rather stunning error from the campaign of David Perdue, the Republican Senate candidate in Georgia. Perdue, or likely someone on his staff, tweeted a clear picture of a check card to the account’s 2,500 followers. The image, seen to the right with a black bar covering the numbers, was deleted after being public for 14 minutes. A call and tweet to alert the campaign about the error and to request comment were never returned.
On Tuesday, Aug. 19, Politico reported that the Committee on House Administration emailed offices to let them know that posting the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on their official accounts is a violation of ethics rules because members cannot “use of official resources for the promotion or benefit of any private charitable cause.” Politwoops caught these violations as they were deleted from official accounts with at least 12 members ending up on our archive since Aug. 19. The Washington Post (twice), Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Quartz wrote about this rule violation with citations of Politwoops.
As summer comes to a close, Hill offices usually bid a kind adieu to the (mostly) unpaid interns who braved D.C. humidity to share their labor, but two representatives bravely deleted their appreciation. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., deleted a tweet after three weeks that said, “A big thank you to our interns Jake & Marshall for all their hard work in the DC Congressional office this Summer!” with the image seen to the left. His account did not respond to a request for comment, and no word on the employment status or appreciation of the bear in the background. Across the aisle, Rep. André Carson, D-Ind., deleted a tweet after one minute that said, “It is difficult 2 say goodbye 2 these amazing interns! See details about joining us this fall” with a link to an application and an image of four young folks with the Capitol building in the background.
That does it for this week and please let us know if you find politicians we’re missing from our system. Have a great weekend!