Why Did Mike Pence 'Like' This Tweet Mocking Donald Trump?
What you “like” on Twitter says a good deal about you and your interests. According to two screenshots shared by NPR’s Becky Sullivan on Friday, Vice President Mike Pence liked a tweet dissing Donald Trump on gun control.
In his original tweet, Trump shared his “thoughts and prayers” after the shooting that took place at YouTube’s San Bruno headquarters on Tuesday. According to law enforcement authorities, four people were injured after a female suspect opened fire in the building. Three days ago, Trump tweeted, “[I] was just briefed on the shooting at YouTube's HQ in San Bruno, California. Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved. Thank you to our phenomenal Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders that are currently on the scene."
Right below Trump's tweet, an evidently annoyed Twitter user named Logan Heer sardonically added, "If only they had armed teachers at YouTube's HQ." Among the eight people who liked Heer's tweet was none other than Mike Pence.
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"631263","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"427","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"480"}}]]
Heer’s sarcastic tweet is a dig at Trump’s proposed solution to gun violence: to arm teachers. The president shared the unpopular idea shortly after a school shooting killed 17 people, including students, in Parkland, Florida in February. Trump even suggested that teachers could be incentivized, through bonuses, to get firearms training and carry guns in schools in order to curb similar shootings. But critics point to a plethora of issues that plague the idea. For starters, it could fatally backfire against students of color who face racial discrimination in schools.
It’s unclear why Pence liked a tweet mocking Trump’s proposal. It's possible that an intern responsible for handling Pence's social media liked the tweet. Or it could be Pence himself. So far, it’s only speculation at this point. But this won’t be the first time someone from Trump’s circle has come under the media radar for questionable social media activity. Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. reportedly liked tweets sharing baseless conspiracy theories about the Parkland survivors just last month.