Ron Paul Mocks Jon Huntsman Over Twitter As 2012 Iowa Caucus Results Roll In
As results of the Iowa caucuses began to roll in Tuesday night, Rep. Ron Paul's (R-Texas) campaign mocked Republican rival Jon Huntsman over Twitter. "We found your one Iowa voter, he's in Linn precinct 5 you might want to call him and say thanks," Paul's campaign tweeted at Huntsman around 8:35 p.m. ET.
The tweet was deleted minutes later, but not before it had been picked up and retweeted by numerous reporters and political junkies glued to Twitter for the latest Iowa results. Had it been the work of an overzealous intern, perhaps? Had Paul's Twitter account been hacked?
Then, at 9:05 p.m. ET, the Paul campaign's tweet reappeared.
According to CBS News's Lindsey Boerma, the tweet did come from the Paul campaign, but the IT department deleted it because they assumed the Twitter account must have been hacked.
"I think someone mistakenly deleted it. I think our IT guy didn't know it was being tweeted when he saw it, thought someone hacked it. But it wasn't a hacked tweet. It was our tweet. We said what we wanted to say," Paul spokesman Gary Howard told Politico.
According to Buzzfeed's Zeke Miller, Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller fired back at Paul.
"We find it odd that Congressman Paul would attack Gov. Huntsman in such a childish fashion," Miller said. "Just the latest in a long line of odd statements from him."
Huntsman skipped Iowa, choosing instead to focus on New Hampshire, whose primary will be held next week.
Paul has run competitively in Iowa, and said this week he expects some "dramatic, good news" Tuesday night.
As the results from the caucuses began to roll in, a senior Paul aide emailed HuffPost, predicting a strong finish: "We might ju[s]t take this -- looks good."
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First Posted: 01/03/12 10:22 PM ET Updated: 01/03/12 11:50 PM ET