New Covfefe Bill Introduced To Keep Trump From Deleting Tweets

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., a Democratic congressman from Illinois, has introduced a bill named for Donald Trump’s infamous “covfefe” tweet,  with the goal of ensuring presidential social media posts are archived.

U.S. Rep. Quigley introduced the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement or COVFEFE act Monday, June 12th, 2017. It would amend the Presidential Records Act to include the term social media.

 

“What the president says matters,” Quigley told Yahoo News Tuesday. “He doesn’t have the luxury of deciding what’s his legacy. … The president must be held accountable for any posts.”

Many of Trump’s deleted tweets contain typos or misspelled words, such as when he recently decried the appointment of a “special councel” while referring to the special counsel for the Russia probe. In attempting to write about a “special counsel,” the leader of the United States misspelled the simple word, instead writing, “councel.”

During the campaign, his account deleted a couple of tweets with anti-Semitic or Nazi imagery.

At a daily White House press briefing last week, press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump’s tweets should be considered official White House statements.

“The president is the most effective messenger on his agenda, and I think his use of social media … gives him an opportunity to speak straight to the American people, which has proved to be a very, very effective tool,” Spicer said in response to a question about whether Trump’s use of social media could impede his ability to get things done.

“I think the same people who are critiquing his use of it now critiqued it during the election, and it turned out pretty well for him then,” Spicer added.

“President Trump’s frequent, unfiltered use of his personal Twitter account as a means of official communication is unprecedented,” Quigley said. “If the president is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference.”

Quigley and his staff are currently looking for co-sponsors for the bill.