Sen. Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican, is demanding Twitter resurrect deleted posts from two of President Biden’s embattled nominees for senior-level positions at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In a letter to the social media giant on Thursday, the senator requested “assistance in recovering” tweets deleted by Mark Colón and Solomon Greene before their nominations.
“The content of these tweets raise serious concerns about Mr. Colón’s and Mr. Greene’s policy views, as well as their character, temperament, and fitness for office,” wrote Mr. Toomey.
Mr. Greene has been tapped by the White House to serve as assistant secretary for policy development and research, pending Senate confirmation. Similarly, if confirmed, Mr. Colón is slated to lead HUD’s community planning and development portfolio.
To date, both men have drawn the scrutiny of GOP lawmakers on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, of which Mr. Toomey is the ranking member, for their longstanding and inflammatory statements on social media.
Mr. Colón, who serves as a housing official in New York, previously used his Twitter account to routinely disparage members of Congress, “cabinet officials, Republican voters, and news anchors,” according to the letter.
In several now-deleted tweets found in online archives, the Biden nominee referred to former President Donald Trump as a “p—-y a— b—-h” and derided GOP lawmakers as “clowns.” Mr. Colón also used his Twitter account to call for defunding the police.
Mr. Greene, likewise, used his Twitter account to endorse defunding law enforcement as well as several other controversial progressive proposals, many of which have to do with housing and urban affairs.
“Because these recent, formerly public statements by Mr. Colón and Mr. Greene are likely to shed light on how they would carry out their duties at HUD, it is critical that senators on the [banking] committee quickly receive this deleted information from Twitter to allow us to fully evaluate these nominations to senior leadership positions in the federal government,” wrote Mr. Toomey.
The letter comes as numerous high-profile Biden administration officials have been caught purging their private social media accounts of controversial and damaging statements before being nominated.
For instance, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm came under fire last year for deleting numerous old Twitter posts before her nomination was announced.
Ms. Granholm, a former governor of Michigan and longtime Democratic party functionary, had used her account to promote theories about Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.
“Is @realDonaldTrump a tool — witting or unwitting — of Putin? One way to prove he isn’t the Manchurian Candidate is to #ReleaseTheReturns,” Ms. Granholm tweeted previously.
Another of Mr. Biden’s nominees, Neera Tanden, was rejected by the Senate to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget after several of her deleted tweets resurfaced. Ms. Tanden, a former president of the liberal Center for American Progress, had used the platform to launch inflammatory attacks on both Republicans and Democrats.
The revelations led even moderate members of Mr. Biden’s party, like Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, to determine she was unqualified for the post.
“I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget,” said Mr. Manchin when announcing his opposition to Ms. Tanden’s nomination.
