Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a Navy SEAL and combat veteran, has blamed hackers for making him follow an “escort” on Twitter after outed by online sleuths, but the attempt at damage control was hardly convincing.
On Thursday, Daily Dot and Mediaite political reporter Zachary Petrizzo tweeted out that Crenshaw is “currently following an escort on Twitter who charges $1,500 per hour,” along with screenshots of the lingerie-clad blonde.
Congressman Dan Crenshaw is currently following an escort on Twitter who charges $1,500 per hour. pic.twitter.com/FPoj0tYQil
Petrizzo’s tweet was quickly seized upon by Democrat activists, who have previously gone after Crenshaw with allegations he had sought to “discredit a woman who said she was sexually assaulted in a VA facility last year.” The Texas congressman has denounced that as a lie.
Wow, Dan, are you saying someone smeared your character publicly? Huh, I wonder if this is even a fraction of how it feels to be that woman veteran you helped the VA Secretary slander. https://t.co/gMq30aCUzv
When Project Lincoln – a group of former Republican operatives turned fanatical haters of President Donald Trump – called him out, however, Crenshaw responded with an insinuation that he may have been hacked.
“Grow up people, no one on my staff, nor I, purposefully followed this account. Thanks for flagging. Passwords changed,” he tweeted.
Grow up people, no one on my staff, nor I, purposefully followed this account. Thanks for flagging. Passwords changed.
Unfortunately for Crenshaw, hardly anybody bought that particular excuse – just as they didn’t believe the staff at US Special Operations base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina back in October, when something similar happened to them.
Having a member of Congress hacked is a serious deal and the FBI ought to get involved, Republican activist Kaitlin Bennett suggested mockingly. Meanwhile, one prominent Trump supporter mocked Crenshaw for blaming “fake news media” when they lie about him, but believing them when they criticized the president or other Republicans he dislikes.
Sounds like you’re alleging a serious crime, that the account of a US Congressman was hacked. I suppose you would be okay with an @FBI investigation to get to the bottom of this, right?
“The Fake News Media is ‘lying’ about me!”Says the dude who believes every lie the Fake News Media says about people on the Right he doesn’t like. https://t.co/0aYdt7U8ji
“So someone hacked into your account, followed one escort, posted nothing, then…?? Cool story,” quipped Doug Stafford, strategist for Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), whose Twitter bio jokes “Opinions here belong to someone who hacked into my account, obviously.”
So someone hacked into your account, followed one escort, posted nothing, then…?? Cool story.
Stafford later pointed out that the most likely explanation was that a Crenshaw staffer forgot which account he or she was logged into when hitting “like.”
Commentator Mike Cernovich used the incident to argue that Crenshaw will get “destroyed by the buzzsaw of adversarial media” if he ever runs for president.
“Some dork no one heard of called him out for following a beautiful woman, and he back pedals like some Boomer who got hacked,” Cernovich tweeted.
This is why I laugh at you idiots who think Crenshaw could be POTUS. He’ll get destroyed by the buzzsaw of adversarial media.Some dork no one heard of called him out for following a beautiful woman, and he back pedals like some Boomer who got hacked. pic.twitter.com/OejbMWK7Yc
Even a combat veteran like Crenshaw, who lost an eye in Afghanistan while fighting there as a Navy SEAL in 2012, isn’t cut out for the “psychological warfare” of the media, Cernovich went on to note.
That’s not to say all the action in this particular “war” was one-sided. More than one person responded to Petrizzo by posting screenshots of his own questionable Twitter activity.
Bruh @ZTPetrizzopic.twitter.com/sS4XM5BBW1
The staff at Fort Bragg deleted their entire account in October after multiple comments from it were posted under a sexually suggestive tweet. Last month, none other than Pope Francis caught some heat online for “liking” a cheeky Instagram post by a Brazilian glamour model.
Rather than making excuses, the pontiff’s staff quietly removed the “like” and went about their business, hoping the internet will forget all about it.
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