When politicians, celebrities, and public figures get called out on controversial tweets, their first instinct is often to reach for the social media whitewash. But as we like to remind those who try to hide from sunlight, Twitchy is forevah.
Without further ado, here are our picks for the top 20 deleted tweets of the year — preserved for posterity, hilarity, and transparency.
20. Civility, anyone? Top Democratic National Committee new media director Greg Greene tweeted a foul-mouthed, gloating reaction to the Supreme Court decision upholding Obamacare. He then deleted the message. Silly “new media director.” You can’t send your profane bloviations down the rabbit hole!
https://twitter.com/ggreeneva/statuses/218346205195927552
19 – 17. Nickelodeon star Jason Biggs and his vulgar wife polluted their public Twitter timelines with sexual jokes, taunts, and misogynist rants aimed at Republican women. After conservative parents and Twitchy pushed back, Biggs tried to sanitize his account of the worst tweets — but later doubled down on the filth. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon removed its tweet promoting Biggs’ Twitter feed. Parents, beware.
https://twitter.com/JasonBiggs/statuses/241008811027099648
https://twitter.com/jennyandteets/statuses/203998080654262272
https://twitter.com/TMNTMaster/statuses/241975122964131840
16. In December, the official Twitter account of the Michigan House Democrats celebrated — and then tried to erase — Democratic State Rep. Douglas Geiss’s irresponsible incitement to violence over right-to-work legislation:
https://twitter.com/MIHouseDems/statuses/278527569580666881
15-14. University of Rhode Island history professor Erik Loomis, America’s nuttiest professor, went ballistic on the National Rifle Association with a series of incendiary, violence-promoting tweets and retweets, including these two. After conservative Campus Reform activists exposed his rhetoric, Loomis deleted his Twitter account, played victim, and then un-deleted his account. So if you’re curious about his views on “historical dildos,” go ahead and follow. The bursting of the higher ed bubble can’t come a moment too soon.
@rmccrory I was heartbroken in the first 20 mass murders. Now I want Wayne LaPierre's head on a stick.
— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 15, 2012
13. Liberal loon actress Cher is in a category all by herself. Here’s one of the trademark diatribes against Mitt Romney and Tea Party conservatives that she tried to erase:
https://twitter.com/cher/statuses/199802649967722496
12-11. We exposed Obama bundler and left-wing starlet Eva Longoria’s hateful retweet against conservative minorities and women in October. After trying to channel disgraced former Democrat Rep. Anthony Weiner and blaming Twitter gremlins for her poor judgment, she offered an insincere non-apology apology. Hollywood P.R. officials: Consider this a textbook example of how not to do social media engagement.
https://twitter.com/EvaLongoria/statuses/256580604894801920
https://twitter.com/EvaLongoria/statuses/258406676162543616
10.Speaking of Hollywood do’s and don’ts, if you are a celeb who wishes to express support for Israel, be prepared for a barrage of Muslim hate tweets and death threats — and for goodness sake, stand by your statement. Reality star Kim Kardashian made a complete fool of herself (not the first time) by dipping her manicured toe into Middle East politics, deleting, and apologizing. Perhaps she should stick to tweeting bikini pics.
https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/statuses/269445783315685377
9. After news of the horrific Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooting broke, a hapless women’s fashion website bragged that “Aurora” was trending because of one of its dresses. A faux apology and blame-avoidance message soon followed. Chalk it up as another lesson in corporate social media 101.
https://twitter.com/celebboutique/statuses/226369632154570752
8. Hilarity ensued when former Clinton officials/pundit Lanny Davis tried to direct message actress Morgan Fairchild, but ended up tweeting his private messages … to the world. Whoopsie!
https://twitter.com/LannyDavis/statuses/221436688688361473
7. When Republicans commit typos or grammatical errors, liberal journos use it as blanket evidence of the Right’s stupidity/lack of education/evilness, etc. (See 2010, when Sarah Palin’s Twitter typo became the gloating MSM-mocked “word of the year.”) To counterbalance the lib lapdogs, Twitchy pointed out countless liberal/Democrat/White House goofs this year, including this one from the official White House Twitter account. Reaction from the left-wing press? Crickets chirping…
https://twitter.com/whitehouse/statuses/218678914762014720
6. Genius Donald Trump tweeted this embarrassing typo and made things worse by deleting it, blaming a staffer, and then deleting the blame redistribution tweet, too. “Dumby,” indeed.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/281473430577086464
5. Notorious woman-beater Chris Brown launched a vicious tirade against comedian Jenny Johnson, who had the audacity to criticize his bloody history with girlfriend/domestic violence victim Rihanna. Brown then deleted his entire Twitter account, along with this tweet, before deciding to restore the account. Rihanna approves.
https://twitter.com/chrisbrown/statuses/272783546534469632
4. David Shuster, the know-it-all liberal who used to host some show on MSNBC, tried to give Twitter user @brento76 a spelling lesson about the word “asinine.”
“It’s ‘assinine,’ with 2s’s… not one,” Shuster smugly (and incorrectly) tweeted.
How do you spell “beclowned?” D-A-V-I-D-S-H-U-S-T-E-R!
3. The official NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Twitter account was commandeered by a spacey left-wing employee in October who used the government feed to re-tweet anti-Romney propaganda from a George Soros-backed outfit. Taxpayers were not happy with the Cher-like rant, and NASA tried to wipe the slate clean. Too late:
2. Among all the unhinged anti-gun responses in the wake of the terrible Newtown school shooting, the murderous anti-NRA incitement of Texas Democratic Party precinct chair and Texas State Democratic Party’s Executive Committee member John Cobarruvias stood out. New lib thug tone, same as the old lib thug tone:
1. Despite the State Department’s attempts to cover it up, the mortifying apologitis of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on the day of the September 11 attack on the compound will live in infamy. Looks like they tried to make the delete button the new reset button. Fail:
https://twitter.com/USEmbassyCairo/statuses/245459609878409216
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Update: We’ve decided to give an honorable mention to Reuters reporter Pedro da Costa, who deleted his tweet calling Mitt Romney’s tax return release a “true sign of desperation.”
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