This isn’t the first time politics and Twitter have gotten messy, but today’s accidental retweet from the Department of Defense Twitter account, calling for President Donald Trump to resign, has many wondering what really happened behind the keyboard.
The original message comes from an activist’s account known as @ProudResister, surrounding the recent Roy Moore and now Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) conversations of sexual misconduct, calling for the two to step down and resign. He also adds Trump to the list, as well as the GOP as a whole.
“The solution is simple… Roy Moore: Step down from the race. Al Franken: Resign from Congress. Donald Trump: Resign from the presidency. GOP: Stop making sexual assault a partisan issue. It’s a crime as is your hypocrisy,” the tweet read.
The solution is simple…
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) November 16, 2017
Roy Moore: Step down from the race.
Al Franken: Resign from congress.
Donald Trump: Resign from the presidency.
GOP: Stop making sexual assault a partisan issue. It’s a crime as is your hypocrisy.
The Dept. of Defense retweeted the message before quickly deleting it from its timeline. Its account has 5.2 million followers.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Charles Manning stated that an “authorized user erroneously re-tweeted content that would not be endorsed by the Dept. of Defense.”
Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Dana White issued a statement on her account as well:
“An authorized operator of the @DeptofDefense’s official Twitter site erroneously retweeted content that would not be endorsed by the Department of Defense. The operator caught this error and immediately deleted it.”
An authorized operator of the @DeptofDefense’s official Twitter site erroneously retweeted content that would not be endorsed by the Department of Defense. The operator caught this error and immediately deleted it.
— Jonathan Hoffman (@ChiefPentSpox45) November 16, 2017
Earlier this year, Trump retweeted and then deleted a cartoon image of a train hitting CNN. According to the New York Times, a White House official stated the tweet was posted inadvertently and deleted as soon as it was noticed.
While ‘liking’ a tweet requires just the push of one button, the act of a retweet requires two: one click on the actual message, and a second to either simply retweet it on your feed, or to “quote tweet” it so you can add in a personal message as well.