President Trump set a personal record on Twitter during the marathon House Judiciary Committee markup hearing held prior to its members passing articles of impeachment Friday.
The president’s personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, posted a total of 123 times Thursday, including tweets and retweets, breaking a previous record set days earlier.
The onslaught of tweets began prior to the Judiciary Committee debating two articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump during a lengthy hearing that extended into the late evening. Members reconvened Friday morning and adopted both articles by a party-line vote of 23-17.
Mr. Trump’s account directly referenced the impeachment proceedings in dozens of tweets sent throughout the day, including some that described it as “fake,” “phony” and a “hoax.”
Other tweets sent during the record-setting Twitter spree included repeated attacks targeting mainstream news outlets critical of the Trump administration and an advertisement for the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, a private business owned by the president’s Trump Organization.
His account also notably took aim at Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old climate activist with Asperger’s, by accusing the teenager of having anger problems and telling her to “chill.” That attack ultimately resulted in “Be Best,” the slogan of first lady Melania Trump’s anti-bullying campaign, briefly becoming a trending topic on Twitter.
The tweeting spree came to an end shortly following 1 a.m. Friday when Mr. Trump’s account posted a congratulatory message to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after his Conservative Party secured a majority in the U.K. Parliament. It resumed several hours later with more tweets criticizing the impeachment process and praising fellow Republicans opposed to it.
Mr. Trump’s previous record for the number of tweets and retweets sent from his account in a single day was set Sunday when it posted 105 times, Vox and The Hill each reported.
He managed to shatter that record despite saying at a White House event Friday morning that he was having a “very busy day.”
Joseph R. Biden, Mr. Trump’s potential Democratic opponent in next year’s presidential election, weighed in shortly after the incumbent’s account tweeted for the 100th time Friday.
“Give it a rest, man,” Mr. Biden’s account tweeted about Mr. Trump.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said that Mr. Trump’s “use of technology to communicate directly with the American people should be praised, not criticized,” the Associated Press reported.
The House Judiciary Committee gaveled in at 9 a.m. Thursday to debate articles of impeachment. Chairman Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, abruptly recessed the hearing after 11 p.m., putting off a vote on the articles until Friday morning to the chagrin of the Republican minority.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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