Romney Spokesman Erases Tweets Attacking Women

TPM

Richard Grenell, Mitt Romney’s brand new spokesperson on national security and foreign policy, has deleted hundreds of tweets in which he made condescending and sexist remarks about several women and Democratic politicians, including Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Callista Gingrich. 

The Huffington Post looks at the extent of the scrubbing: 

On Friday afternoon, Grenell still featured a link to his personal site (http://www.richardgrenell.com) on his Twitter profile, which then showed that he had tweeted 7,577 times, according to a screenshot taken Friday by The Huffington Post. By Sunday morning, Grenell’s Twitter feed only listed 6,759 tweets and his personal site is no longer available. 

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who’s been a target of Grenell’s tweets, pointed out that his comments about women might not go over well with voters, wondering on her show if there’s “any sign that they understand that a long, string of really nasty, sexist tweets about Callista Gingrich’s appearance might be alienating to people who might otherwise consider voting for Mr. Romney.”

Grenell offered a general apology to Politico on Friday for making fun of the Gingriches and other prominent Americans, including many women: 

my tweets were written to be tongue-in-cheek and humorous but I can now see how they can also be hurtful. I didn’t mean them that way and will remove them from twitter. I apologize for any hurt they caused.

Apart from Grenell’s reputation for harsh remarks on Twitter, he has a reputation for being difficult with the press and dedicated posts on his now defunct personal website to lampooning members of the media. From HuffPo: 

Reuters veteran Irwin Arieff told The Huffington Post that he’s “appalled to hear that the Romney campaign has hired Mr. Grenell in any capacity.” In an email response, Arieff, who worked over two decades at Reuters, including seven years covering the U.N, said he found Grenell “to be the most dishonest and deceptive press person I ever worked with.”
“He often lied, even more frequently offered half answers or withheld information that would weaken his case or reflect poorly on his ideological point of view,” Arieff said. “He was always argumentative with the press, castigating reporters for asking questions he did not like, and calling them to criticize them for writing articles he did not like.”