The Week on Politwoops: A senator takes down a King
On this week’s roundup of notable deleted tweets archived on Politwoops, we go ringside with a senator, collect dozens of old campaign messages from a new governor and more.
Last weekend, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., checked an item off her husband’s bucket list and went to the heavyweight boxing championship in Las Vegas. She shared a few tweets from the evening, including a photo of the judge, but decided to delete the photo seen to the right of legendary boxing promoter Don King while he waved an American flag.
The official Twitter account for Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., deleted a collection of 41 tweets from 11 weeks ago. The deletions are from the final days of Ducey’s campaign, ranging from photos of him meeting with supporters to scenes of his team of young phone bank volunteers. His account did not respond to requests for comment.
The official House Twitter account for Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., deleted a tweet about the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, sending out another tweet with a significantly different message soon afterwards. The initial version said, “@HouseGOP recklessly panders to pro-choice marchers by swapping #antichoice abortion messaging bills.” That was deleted after seven minutes and replaced with one saying, “@HouseGOP continue to attack women’s access to healthcare. Its time to stop playing games w/ women’s lives.” His account did not respond to a question about the messaging alteration.
A deletion that made a little more sense was one from the official account of Gov. Rick Snyder, R-Mich., who backtracked on an enthusiastic response to his own message. His account tweeted, “Michigan’s reinvention continues,” and then he responded to himself, “Oh yeah it does!” The one man cheer squad backed down after just eight seconds and could be the result of a staffer logged into their boss’ account. That remains unclear as his account did not respond to my question about the deletion.
Please let us know with a quick email if there are accounts Politwoops is missing, and have a good weekend!