Illinois Democrat Lunges for Spotlight with COVFEFE Act

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) has introduced a bill in Congress called the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement (COVFEFE) Act to classify President Donald Trump’s social media posts as official presidential records.

The Democratic representative borrowed the acronym from Trump’s infamous May 30 “covfefe” tweet, which sent the mainstream media into a tizzy overnight. The tweet was a simple typo that became an internet phenomenon. Should the COVFEFE Act pass, it would amend the Presidential Records Act to include “social media” posts like tweets as records that must be preserved. If the act passed, and was signed into law, it could be illegal for the president to delete a tweet.

“In order to maintain public trust in government, elected officials must answer for what they do and say; this includes 140-character tweets,” Quigley said in a statement. “President Trump’s frequent, unfiltered use of his personal Twitter account as a means of official communication is unprecedented.”

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“If the president is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference,” the statement added. “Tweets are powerful, and the president must be held accountable for every post.”

Eddie Zipperer, an assistant professor of political science at Georgia Military College, told LifeZette in an email that Quigley’s “useless legislation” constituted a bid to gain the public’s attention.

“This is useless legislation which serves no purpose, and it has only managed to make headlines because of the novelty of the forced acronym,” Zipperer said. “Rep. Quigley should spend more time on substantive issues and less time trying to make headlines with gimmicky nonsense.”

The name of Quigley’s bill, of course, come from the since-deleted late-night tweet from Trump, in which he cryptically typed the phrase, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe,” with no further explanation and left the world hanging throughout the wee hours of the night. After several hours, the president finally deleted his tweet before following up with, “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’ ???  Enjoy!”

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Although Trump most likely meant to type “coverage,” the world collectively lost its mind trying to decode the president’s half-finished tweet. Reporters even deemed the tweet to be of such import that White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, was grilled about it — and the president’s controversial tweeting habits — during ensuing news briefings.

“The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant,” Spicer said, before adding at a separate briefing, when pressed, that “the president is president of the United States, so they are considered official statements by the president of the United States.”

The official @POTUS Twitter account belongs to the president and is passed down to successors, but Trump operates his official @realDonaldTrump Twitter page himself.

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“President Trump’s tweets frequently make national news and are a topic of everyday conversation, including deciphering the meaning behind his tweet using the previously unheard of term, ‘covfefe,'” Quigley’s statement noted. “While his personal account has become the de facto account for government business, it is unclear as to whether or not it would be archived in the same manner as the official @POTUS account under the Presidential Records Act.”

Quigley’s district is in Chicago — a city that has suffered a devastating amount of violence over the past few years. So far this year, 275 people have been murdered, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday. But violence in the streets and other issues his constituents are facing seemed far from his mind this week.

“Rep. Quigley is desperate to be noticed, and this is not the first time he’s wasted taxpayer time and money by pushing absurd, non-substantive anti-Trump legislation, which relies on his super-clever acronym gimmick,” Zipperer noted.

Indeed, in March, Quigley introduced the Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness (MAR-A-LAGO) Act — named after the president’s Florida resort. As part of his stated fight to “combat the Trump Administration’s recent efforts to roll back transparency,” Quigley introduced this bill to require the publication of the names of all of Trump’s visitors to the White House and other locations, such as Mar-a-Lago, where he conducts official business.