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:

THE TRUTH...

is the first thing despots go after. An unwavering commitment to it is probably what draws you to Mother Jones' journalism. And as we're seeing in the US and the world around, authoritarians seek to poison the discourse and the way we relate to each other because they can't stand people coming together around a shared sense of the truth—it's a huge threat to them.

Which is also a pretty great way to describe Mother Jones' mission: People coming together around the truth to hold power accountable.

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THE TRUTH...

is the first thing despots go after. An unwavering commitment to it is probably what draws you to Mother Jones' journalism. And as we're seeing in the US and the world around, authoritarians seek to poison the discourse and the way we relate to each other because they can't stand people coming together around a shared sense of the truth—it's a huge threat to them.

Which is also a pretty great way to describe Mother Jones' mission: People coming together around the truth to hold power accountable.

And right now, we need to raise about $400,000 from our online readers over the next two months to hit our annual goal and make good on that mission. Read more about the information war we find ourselves in and how people-powered, independent reporting can and must rise to the challenge—and please support our team's truth-telling journalism with a donation if you can right now.

payment methods

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