Tone deaf Sen. McCain asks for more Twitter followers, so he loses thousands
After he dealt a devastating blow to our social safety net last week, Senator John McCain is now asking for a handout.
On Monday, the Senator's Twitter account made a tone-deaf request for more Twitter followers. The account was just short of 3 million followers by "74 persons," the tweet reported -- would people be so kind to "spread the word & help us reach this big milestone!?"
Nope.
Look at the ratio on that baby.
Soon after McCain posted the tweet, followers began abandoning him in droves. At the time of tweet, McCain had 2,999,926 followers. Just four hours later, McCain had only 2,989,196, a decrease of 10,730 followers. His decline looked less like a gentle downward slope and more like a deadly drop-off.
McCain, once beloved by liberals for his sassy speeches and passive-aggressive thumbs, fell out of favor with (some of) the Twitter left after voting with the rest of his party for tax reform on Friday. His decline will likely be temporary. No other Republican has crashed so many times only to be resurrected by masochistic Democrats months later.
There's little damage liberals can do to McCain at this point, so it's nice to see him dragged on the platform where it matters least, Twitter.
Only 45 percent of McCain's followers are believed to be authentic anyways. Compare that to Trump, who commands a notorious bot army. 52 percent of Trump's followers are believed to be real, giving him the advantage.
Humans and bots have united under a common agenda -- "Ner ner ner ner ner ner."
Topics Politics
Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.
