U.S. President Donald Trump deleted tweets showing support for Alabama Sen. Luther Strange after the Republican nominee lost a primary runoff for U.S. Senate.
On Tuesday, conservative firebrand Roy Moore was elected as the Republican nominee to fill a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama vacated by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Moore, who was backed by former White House adviser Steve Bannon, defeated Strange who had been supported by Trump.
READ MORE: Who is Roy Moore? Some background on man who beat Donald Trump’s candidate
Trump fired off three tweets in support of Strange leading up to the runoff.
“Big election tomorrow in the Great State of Alabama. Vote for Senator Luther Strange, tough on crime & border – will never let you down!” reads a now-deleted tweet.
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“Luther Strange has been shooting up in the Alabama polls since my endorsement. Finish the job – vote today for ‘Big Luther,’” Trump tweeted.
“ALABAMA, get out and vote for Luther Strange – he has proven to me that he will never let you down! #MAGA,” the president tweeted.
The scrubbed tweets were archived by ProPublica, which created a tool which tracks “deleted tweets by public officials, including people currently in office and candidates for office.”
The president also deleted a tweet congratulating Moore on his win.
“Congratulations to Roy Moore on his Republican Primary win in Alabama. Luther Strange started way back & ran a good race. Roy, WIN in Nov!” Trump tweeted.
According to ProPublica, the congratulatory tweet was live for 18 minutes before being scrubbed from Trump’s feed. Though it appears the tweet was deleted for a correction as the same tweet appeared again later, correcting “Nov!” to “Dec!”
On Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter again, saying Moore “sounds like a really great guy.”
“Spoke to Roy Moore of Alabama last night for the first time. Sounds like a really great guy who ran a fantastic race. He will help to #MAGA!” the president tweeted.
Trump is known to delete tweets and the White House was warned in April to preserve and keep record of all of Trump’s tweets, including deleted and corrected tweets.
In June, Democratic congressman Mike Quigley introduced a bill with the goal of ensuring presidential social media posts are archived.
The bill dubbed the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement – or COVFEFE – act would amend the Presidential Records Act to include the term social media.
READ MORE: U.S. lawmaker wants to preserve Donald Trump’s tweets
The bill was named after the president’s somewhat infamous late night typo in May.
“Despite the constant negative press covfefe,” read the now deleted tweet.
-with a file from the Associated Press
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