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Senator Pauses Hearing to Respond to Critical Tweet

Senator Pauses Hearing to Respond to Critical Tweet

The hearing on the topic of cyber security was going just like any other afternoon Congressional gathering when Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski briefly stopped the proceedings to openly respond to a Tweet from Buzzfeed reporter Rosie Gray. Gray had observed that the Maryland Democrat was attempting to direct questions away from the NSA spying case, tweeting “@SenatorBarb is trying hard to keep the other senators from asking Gen. Alexander anymore about data mining programs”

Instead of doing the normal thing—like hitting the reply icon or simply waiting until she’s not at work overseeing a Congressional hearing to respond to a reporter’s observation on Twitter—Mikulski addressed the entire Senate and everyone watching on C-SPAN. “I want to say to Rosie … there is no attempt here to muzzle [or] stifle any senator from any line of questions.” She then held up her cell phone, looked at the camera, and said, “So Rosie, it’s an open hearing. Hi, look forward to keeping in touch.” An interesting choice considering the reporter’s concern was about the government spending too much time spying on your social media correspondence. Not creepy at all, right? …

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