Democratic Lawmaker's Unusual Reaction To Abortion Decision Sparks Twitter Backlash
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) decided to turn “inward” with yoga to deal with the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday.
The congressman, in a now-deleted tweet, wrote that the Supreme Court decision mixed with the passage of a bipartisan gun safety bill led to “a moment of wildly conflicting emotions” and turned to his regular #AsanasWithAndy posts in which he shares yoga poses.
This time, however, he left Twitter users scratching their heads due to the timing of the tweet.
Cannot stop thinking about how a Dem congressman responded to the biggest rollback of reproductive rights in living memory by tweeting this pic.twitter.com/q7wtotcyDi
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 25, 2022
Half the population became second class citizens in certain states and the Dem response has been to read poems, do yoga, and ask everyone outraged to be polite about it.
Yeah. It's about to suck for a very long time.— Akela Cooper 😈 (@AkelaCooper) June 24, 2022
Rep. Andy Levin after President DeSantis declares Christianity the official state religion pic.twitter.com/EUwTVkZNZO
— Daniel D'Addario (@DPD_) June 24, 2022
Dems: how could we let this happen
Also dems: yeah so Supreme Court decision blows anyways check out my yoga pose don’t forget to like & subscribe ✌️ pic.twitter.com/f1TxSoc7Ud— Josh Trebach, MD (@jtrebach) June 24, 2022
Everyone's upset right now so I thought as a way of raising the vibe I'd post pictures of myself doing some yoga poses and -- what?? IT WILL HELP.
— Bill Corbett (@BillCorbett) June 24, 2022
Levin’s press secretary Janae Washington, in a statement to HuffPost, wrote that the tweet was deleted in less than 60 minutes.
She added that a screenshot of the deleted tweet was shared by Jack Posobiec — described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “far-right commentator” who has collaborated with white supremacists and antisemites — to make “sure it stayed in the news” for his 1.8 million followers.
“We realized quite immediately that the tweet was unhelpful in a moment of great distress and amid other missteps in reactions that day, deleted it in under an hour, and sought to course correct with a more inclusive post,” Washington wrote.
“We hope we can move on from the far-right’s attempt to distract us from the egregious assault on human rights that happened yesterday and focus on the work ahead. We will keep learning and keep fighting for justice.”
The tweet came on the same day as a number of other Democratic responses that people have questioned on social media.
Some expressed dismay and anger that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) quoted song lyrics in her response to the abortion decision.
And House Democrats sang “God Bless America” on the U.S. Capitol steps to celebrate the passage of a bipartisan gun safety bill as demonstrators spoke out and gathered outside the Supreme Court, Insider reported.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.