September 27, 2017

Trump Deletes a Bunch of Tweets Backing Loser in Alabama Primary

Sad!

Dan Anderson/ZUMA

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Shortly after congratulating Roy Moore, the winner in Tuesday’s Alabama Republican primary runoff, President Donald Trump deleted at least three tweets in which he had previously backed Moore’s opponent, incumbent Sen. Luther Strange.

Trump had campaigned for Strange, traveling to Hunstville, Alabama, on Friday to speak at a rally for the senator. There, he admitted he had some doubts about the endorsement. “I’ll be honest, I might have made a mistake,” he said.

ProPublica, which catalogues Trump’s deleted tweets, captured the newly removed Strange posts:

Ethics groups, most notably Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, have argued that deleting presidential tweets could violate federal law mandating such communications be preserved.

Other tweets touting Trump’s support of Strange are still available:

Trump’s editing of his Twitter account on Tuesday did not extend to his most controversial tweets. The ones bashing professional athletes, for example, remain.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/911572182060453893

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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