Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller called Hillary Clinton a sexually explicit and obscene epithet – publicly, on Twitter.
He says a staffer posted it, but does that mean he shouldn’t be held responsible?
After some hemming and hawing, Miller insisted it was a staffer using his account who posted an offensive tweet making national headlines. The tweet was deleted after 15 minutes, but not quickly enough for screenshots and others to capture the moment (see below), leading to an avalanche of recrimination from Texans across party lines.
Harold Cook, a longtime Democratic political analyst and columnist at Letters From Texas, says it's poppycock to say Miller isn't responsible.
“Officeholders like Sid Miller are all too happy to take credit for the good things that may happen on a social media front, but to blame a staffer for something bad that happens – look, bad things do happen,” Cook says. “I get that. But the problem here is once they do, don’t weasel your way out of it by blaming a staffer.”
Texas ag commissioner Sid Miller just called Hillary Clinton the c word. #txlege pic.twitter.com/zkxsEo5FeI
— Edgar Walters (@ewaltersTX) November 1, 2016
Cook says there’s no way to know who actually posted the tweet – Miller or the staff member – but Miller should be accountable.
“As recently as a few days ago, Sid Miller claimed that his thoughts are his own on Twitter, which tells me that he was saying that he does it himself,” Cook says. “I don’t know that we’ll ever know who did this particular tweet, but, look, it is all his responsibility. It’s under his name.”
Cook says officeholders like Miller need to understand that social media is a powerful communication tool - a lesson one might think Miller already learned after his previous controversies on Facebook.
“I don’t think this one episode is going to make or break Sid Miller or anyone else,” Cook says. “But it is another nail in the coffin showing voters who Sid Miller is, in not a good way.”
Post by Sunny Sone.
