Let’s Try Another Explanation
Rick Nolan has managed to land himself in a bit of controversy over tweeting – and deleting – a spiteful take on the Constitution. And now Rick Nolan and friends are having trouble explaining away both the words and the actions.
As City Pages reports, Republican challenger Stewart Mills is on Rick Nolan’s case about his controversial views. Inexplicably, the Nolan camp tries six ways to Sunday to explain the bizarre incident.
Cue the Nolan PR “strategies”:
1. Blame the deletion on a typo, but don’t explain why it wasn’t reposted sans typo:
Nolan source: “…the tweet may have been deleted simply because it contained a typo.”
2. Throw a staff member under the bus:
Nolan source: “…tweet may have been published by a user not authorized to post from Nolan’s official account…”
3. Double-down on original disparaging remark by calling the Founding Fathers for backup:
Nolan source: “…even the Founding Fathers wouldn’t take issue with the claim…”
Which one of the three excuses explains the message and deletion from Rick Nolan’s twitter account? More likely, extreme liberal Rick Nolan revealed his true colors in a hasty tweet that was then deleted upon realizing its politically tone-deaf take on America’s foundational document.
But perhaps Rick Nolan has yet another explanation for his words and actions.
Stewart Mills makes hay out of Rick Nolan’s deleted tweet about the Constitution
City Pages
By Aaron Rupar
July 22, 2014
Republican U.S. House hopeful Stewart Mills put incumbent Democrat Rick Nolan on blast yesterday for a tweet posted but then promptly deleted from Nolan’s account in which the U.S. Constitution is described as an “imperfect document.”
“Rick Nolan needs to explain what exactly he meant when he called the Constitution an imperfect document on Friday,” Mills said in a release. “As a Member of Congress, he took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, but now he’s showing his true colors. For hundreds of years, countless Americans have fought and made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our way of life.”
“They stood up to defend not only their country, but their Constitution and all it stands for,” Mills continued. “The Eighth Congressional District needs someone who will respect the principles our country was founded on, not someone who thinks that foundation is imperfect.”
A Mills spokesperson tells us the campaign first was alerted to the deleted tweet after it was posted on Politiwoops. Mills drew attention to it on Twitter before issuing the aforementioned release:
Nolan’s ill-fated tweet came in response to this post from Republican Arizona U.S. Rep. Trent Franks:
We contacted a Nolan source for comment. They declined to comment on the record, but characterized the controversy as a non-story and pointed out that the tweet may have been deleted simply because it contained a typo.
The source also said it appears the tweet may have been published by a user not authorized to post from Nolan’s official account, but they didn’t confirm that.
Setting all that aside, the source argued that even the Founding Fathers wouldn’t take issue with the claim that the U.S. Constitution is an imperfect document, as delegates to the Constitutional Convention openly disagreed about a wide range of issues.