This Year in Jerusalem and an Opening for Net Neutrality Spark Twitter Traffic
THE ECHO: Weekly Roundup of Political Discussion on Twitter (May 10–16, 2018)
The split screen between the important and historic vs. the petty was central to understanding this week on political Twitter in the United States. After decades of promises to enforce the law, the United States unveiled its new embassy in Jerusalem, prompting violent protests in Gaza. The Net Neutrality issue resurfaced spiking discussion about the Senate, House, and specific members. Discussion on Gina Haspel’s nomination to lead the CIA was down this week, likely signaling a smoother confirmation vote than initially expected, given some Senators’ apprehension. We also cover the continuing Avenatti/Cohen vortex and reaction to a snide comment by Kelly Sadler about John McCain.
United States’ Jerusalem Embassy Opens
While President Trump stayed behind in the United States, Ivanka and Jared Trump traveled to Jerusalem this week to unveil the nation’s embassy in Israel’s disputed capitol city. Conversation about Trump on Twitter was down 20 percent this week to 4,837,671 related tweets, well off his average of close to 6.4 million. The city of Jerusalem and the most common hashtag #USEmbassyJerusalem combined for our top Hot Topic of the week, drawing 919,026 related tweets, up 1,633 percent from the previous week. Violent counter-protests in Gaza drew 790,412 related tweets, which represent an increase of 2,256 percent from the previous seven days.
Net Neutrality Returns to Capitol Hill
The U.S. Senate approved a bipartisan resolution called the Congressional Resolution Act (CRA) to restore Obama-era Net Neutrality rules overturned by the Federal Communications Commission last year. Three Republican Senators, Susan Collins (Maine), John Kennedy (Louisiana), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) joined all of the Democrats in the chamber to push through the legislation, which is now pending in the House of Representatives.
On Twitter, Net Neutrality drew 751,726 related posts and was up 422 percent from last week. Several members of Congress were targeted with tweets in support of the legislation, including incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller (NV) who is in a toss-up race this year. Tweets about Sen. Heller were up 771 percent over last week on 33,236 related posts, including one from Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, retweeted over 5,900 times, which appears to have been deleted.
Gina Haspel’s CIA Nomination Wraps
The initial reluctance to confirm Gina Haspel as the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency centered on her role in post-9/11 torture of detainees. Republican Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake both said they would not support her nomination but after her hearingswhere she said she would not allow torture in the future, it appears that she will gain confirmation as enough Democrats are expected to negate those losses on the final vote. As an indication of her confirmation prospects improving, discussion about Haspel on Twitter was down 13 percent this week to 289428 related posts. (Update: She was confirmed.)
Avenatti’s Public Campaign Continues
Stephanie Clifford/Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti remained in the news this week, as he continued his campaign against attorney Michael Cohen and his client, President Trump. Avenatti appears to be drawing most of the attention in this media assault as tweets about him were up 18 percent on 792,503 related posts, which is striking considering his constant news presence. Cohen is down 20 percent over the past week on 523,081 tweets, still a significant danger sign for the embattled fixer.
Kelly Sadler’s McCain Comment Backfires
We close the week with a leaked story about White House Special Assistant Kelly Sadler who drew over 7.9 million more tweets this week than last — she was only in two the previous week. Sadler was in 158,518 tweets over the past week, mainly about her comment about John McCain. In a discussion about Haspel’s nomination, it was reported that Sadler said he was “dying anyway” so he wouldn’t be a factor in the final vote.
The crassness of the comment drew 133 percent more tweets this week to John McCain (671,196) and 448 percent more to his daughter Meghan (77,062), who defended him publicly and Sadler has not apologized publicly despite promising to do so. Still, the relatively low number of tweets is a possible indicator why the White House press office has focused more on the leak than the damage it did to Sadler’s reputation or the institution’s. Considering who was targeted and the reaction, they may not think it’s a big deal that requires a public response.
“The ECHO” is a publication of The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM). This edition covers political activity on Twitter in the United States May 10–16, 2018. All data from this post, as well as our methodology, is available on our PEORIA Project website and weekly by email (subscribe here). Also available on our website is the first edition of The ECHO Quarterly, summarizing three big things this research can teach campaigns and elected officials.
