A Republican strategist took advantage of an opportunity presented by Andrew Bates, White House deputy press secretary and senior communications advisor for strategic response, who shared a couple of his posts on Thursday.
The first retweet was of GOP strategist Greg Price quoting White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre attacking critics of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. She said, "There's been a lot of bad faith attacks on Secretary Buttigieg. If you remember Elaine Chao. She was the head of the Department of Transportation and when there were these types of chemical spills, nobody was calling for her to be fired."
The second tweet from Bates shared the same clip. And while it was posted under his name, Twitter keeps the name of the account where the video originated from.
The third post was again a retweet of Price quoting KJP, who said: "The Cabinet is majority people of color for the first time in history. The Cabinet is majority female for the first time in history. A majority of White House senior staff identify is female and a record 7 assistants to the president are LGBTQ+."
None of this would be problematic for Bates, of course, if not for Price temporarily rebranding his account when he saw the deputy press secretary picking up his tweets.
It’s still up 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/yDfbeWOo12
— James Ruldolph Jr. (@Strimecka) February 23, 2023
White House spokesman @AndrewBatesNC retweets @greg_price11, who's new account name is Joe Biden Showered With His Daughter. 👏 pic.twitter.com/I7P3W0qO9z
— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) February 23, 2023
Quite a blunder for the senior communications advisor for strategic response. Next time, he may think twice about retweeting videos from other accounts.