With a lost Senate bid behind him, Scott Brown appears to have enough time on his hands to respond to Twitter trolls. A recent string of late-night tweets sent by the former Republican senator from Massachusetts raised eyebrows over the last weekend in January.
Brown, who failed in his re-election bid against Democrat Elizabeth Warren, has been tweeting about his daily activities, football and his family since leaving office. But without the finesse of social media congressional staffers at his side, some of his tweets show how hard it can be to navigate the social media landscape.
His Twitter troubles began Friday evening with the three words: “Yes. Get ready.”
Get ready for a Senate run? That naturally prompted some snarky commentary from the Twitterati who assumed it was a cryptic announcement of a run for John Kerry’s Senate seat, which is likely to be vacated soon.
“Oh we are. You have no idea how ready #MaPoli is to vote to keep you in the private sector & out of #MASen” @MattinSomerville shot back at him.
Brown snapped back at him and other critics past midnight. “Your brilliant Matt,” he first tweeted. He followed up with, “whatever” and “Bqhatevwr.” His nonsensical tweets have since been deleted, but not without the Internet taking note. (Gawker.com caught the screengrab.)
The politician’s future career has been under speculation in recent weeks after President Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That would leave a Massachusetts Senate seat up for grabs in a special election.
A recent poll conducted by Mass Inc. Polling Group, shows Brown leading 44 to 36% against a generic Democratic candidate in a hypothetical special election match-up. When up against Rep. Ed Markey, Brown leads by a greater margin of 53 to 31%.
Brown hasn’t disclosed his future political ambitions, but many in the media have wondered whether Brown will run to fill the slot. msnbc’s Lawrence O’Donnell argued that a move back into the Senate is unlikely for Brown, saying the Republican would have a better shot of winning the governorship instead.
The Senate is expected to confirm John Kerry as secretary of state on Tuesday. Brian McNiff, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Secretary of State Elections Division, confirmed they will set the primary for April 30 and hold the special election to replace Kerry on June 25.
Gov. Deval Patrick plans to appoint a temporary replacement on Wednesday.
Sarah Muller