WASHINGTON -- Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) on Wednesday deleted a tweet he sent to a self-described "pathogen" who has "lots of porn."
"Campylobacter" tweeted at Rigell earlier this week to praise the congressman's fiscal views outlined in a recent Time magazine article. Campylobacter uses the Twitter handle @campyspornshack.
Rigell tweeted back two days later, on July 3, "@campyspornshack Thank you for the words of support!" But a day later, the congressman deleted his tweet.
Rigell spokeswoman Kim Mosser Knapp couldn't be reached for comment as to why the congressman nixed his tweet. An automatic email response from Mosser Knapp indicated she was unavailable, and the person answering the phones at Rigell's congressional office said nobody was available to talk to the press until Monday.
Perhaps Rigell deleted his tweet because he read Campylobacter's Twitter biography, which says: "I'm a pathogen. Who lives in a shack. With lots of porn." Or he may have hit delete because of the colorful nature of Campylobacter's tweets, one of which tells a Twitter follower to dream of "red, white & blue porn!" on July 4.
One Twitter user pointed out to Campylobacter that Rigell deleted his tweet, but it didn't seem to bother Campylobacter much.
"@Byron_Johnson More dismayed that the GOP would denounce @RepScottRigell for thanking me, than I am that his reply to me was deleted," Campylobacter tweeted.
This isn't the first time Rigell has drawn attention to his Twitter practices. In March 2011, a local television station noticed that Rigell was following some questionable people on Twitter, including some who went by the names "Let There Be Porn," "Hottest Phone Sex" and "Sexoroid."
After the station told Rigell's staff what it had found, they stopped using a software program that automatically signed up Rigell to follow anyone on Twitter who followed the congressman's feed.
UPDATE: July 6, 12:17 p.m. -- Mosser Knapp said Friday that she was the one who sent the tweet and then deleted it.
"This was an honest mistake on my part. I take full responsibility," Mosser Knapp said.
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