February 8, 2019

John Dingell Told Us That Yes, He Was Responsible for His Savage Twitter Feed

Here are some of the late congressman’s best.

Rep. John Dingell on March 10, 2011.Alex Brandon/AP

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John Dingell, the Democrat who represented Michigan for 59 years and was the longest-serving member of Congress, died Thursday at his home in Dearborn, Michigan. He was 92. Over his long tenure, he shaped environmental policy, supported civil rights legislation, and criticized the growth of partisanship within Congress—and also clashed with Democrats by supporting the Vietnam War and gun rights and failing to support abortion rights.

But after his retirement, he’s also become known as a witty and merciless Twitter antagonist of President Donald Trump.

When I interviewed Dingell in December for a story I was writing on the 45th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, which Dingell sponsored back in 1973, I couldn’t resist asking him about his savage Twitter feed. So before he hopped off the phone to get to a doctor’s appointment, I asked if he was the person who was actually tweeting from the account, knowing that some people doubted it was true. “I am, yes,” he said, adding, “I have great fun.” 

Here are some of his all-time greatest tweets, bringing heat even in his last few days:

Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

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