Newt Gingrich tweeted about Sen. Al Franken and the 'popular vote' prevailing on Thursday morning and people didn't know where to start with criticizing it.

Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC-BY-SA)

Newt Gingrich tweet about Franken and ‘popular vote’ sets Twitter ablaze

There's a lot going on in this tweet.

Photo of Andrew Wyrich 

Andrew Wyrich

Internet Culture

Posted on Dec 7, 2017   Updated on May 22, 2021, 8:46 am CDT

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich appeared to tweet in defense of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Thursday morning, arguing that senators calling for him to step down amid a growing number of sexual misconduct allegations does not outweigh him winning an election.

But others think his intentions were beyond just Franken, and he instead laid the groundwork to justify the possible election of Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who several women have come forward to say he engaged in sexual misconduct with them in the past, including attempting to rape a 16-year-old and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old.

Gingrich also brought up the “popular vote” in defense of Franken, which–of course–set off alarms on Twitter.

“Franken 1,053,205 Minnesotans picked him for senate in 2014,” Gingrich wrote. “30 self appointed ‘pure’senators want him out What happened to popular vote.”

There is speculation that Franken will resign on Thursday after multiple women have come forward to say that he groped them or forcibly kissed them in the past. On Wednesday, an avalanche of senators called on Franken to step down from his position.

The tweet sparked numerous responses from people jumping on Gingrich’s use of “popular vote” to justify Franken staying in the Senate, while others seemed shocked that Gingrich would defend someone accused of sexual misconduct.

A large portion of people commenting on the tweet instead saw it as a future defense for Moore, who despite the numerous sexual misconduct reports against him, is leading in most Alabama polls and has received an endorsement from President Donald Trump.

Whatever their point of contention was, people let Gingrich have it on Thursday morning.

https://twitter.com/TheRealUbboUbbo/status/938770858587447296

https://twitter.com/williamjanover/status/938770342612553728

Share this article
*First Published: Dec 7, 2017, 9:16 am CST

Andrew Wyrich

Andrew Wyrich is the newsletter editor at the Daily Dot. He previously served as the deputy tech editor. Andrew has written for USA Today, NorthJersey.com, and other newspapers and websites. His work has been recognized by the Society of the Silurians, Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE), and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

Andrew Wyrich