The Week on Politwoops: Office account says ‘I voted yes’ when member votes no and more

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An image promoting HR 749 that was deleted from the Twitter feed of Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, who voted against the bill.
Deleted image via Politwoops.

This week’s roundup of deletions archived by Politwoops includes a declaration of a yea vote when the congressman voted nay and more.

On the afternoon of a vote for H.R. 749, a bill funding Amtrak, Iowa Republican Rep. David Young’s official Twitter account tweeted, “I voted yes for the Passenger Rail Reform & Investment Act, makes transportation cheaper & more accountable. #IA03.” The tweet included the image to the right listing reasons to support the legislation. That image appears to be provided by the House Republican Conference’s Flickr page, which often supplies members with social media fodder for the day. The only problem was that Young voted against the bill, which passed with bipartisan support.

The tweet was deleted after seven hours and is now only available on Politwoops. In a call to Young’s office, a senior communications staffer who wished to remain anonymous took responsibility saying, “It was just an error on my part, I do the social media so my mistake on posting that.” When asked why a member of Young’s senior staff promoted a bill and shared the opposite vote than what occurred, the staffer responded, “There wasn’t any wavering on the congressman’s side, I just put in the wrong information.”

Young’s Twitter account did not tweet about the changed message, and his office did not issue any statement on the vote. A request made Thursday morning for comment about the reason for the member’s nay vote remains unanswered, and we’ll update this post if one arrives. On Young’s official Facebook account, a status from the morning before the vote is still live saying, “H.R. 749 reforms Amtrak to increase transparency, reduce costs, so that it operates more like a business.”

Before the Department of Homeland Security funding passed without provisions gutting Obama’s immigration actions, Democrats were vocally pressuring Republicans on social media with the hashtag #DontShutDownOurSecurity. As is often the case with campaigns eager to spread their message, Democrats utilized various memes to connect to the youth and reference-hungry online masses. Politwoops caught Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., changing the meme incorporated in his message after three hours to this:

A changed meme reference by the official account of Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., caught in Politwoops.

In other Politwoops news this week, the site tracked some social media inspiration when Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, deleted a retweet of Benjamin Netanyahu saying, “‘This Capitol dome, helped build our Iron Dome. Thank you, America.’ #NetanyahuSpeech” and then adapted it into a new tweet saying, “‘This Capitol dome, helped build our Iron Dome.’– @IsraeliPM #StandWithIsrael.”

Politwoops also observed the official account of Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., deleting a tweet after an hour that said, “I just flew 1,117m in a totally crazy game of #JetpackJoyride on iPhone.” Meng’s official account didn’t respond to a request for explanation, but it is not the first time a mobile game appears in Politwoops and likely not the last.

Have a great weekend, and please let me know if you notice any accounts that Politwoops is missing!