Muse campaign tweets, then deletes criticism of black clergy’s endorsement of Cardin

People on Twitter often put a disclaimer on their accounts saying “Retweets do not equal endorsements.” But that doesn’t stop most folks, particularly those in the public eye, from being careful about the content of the links they provide.

Maryland state Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince George’s) may have just joined the ranks of cautious tweeters.

Muse is challenging Sen. Benjamin Cardin in the April 3 Democratic primary. Though Muse is a well-known minister and founder of the Ark of Safety Christian Church in Upper Marlboro, on Monday Cardin collected the endorsement of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance in Baltimore.

That apparently didn’t sit well with the Muse campaign, and on Tuesday his Twitter account — @museformaryland — tweeted out a link to a blog post titled “Baltimore Black Clergy Betray Community.”

But by Wednesday morning, the tweet had been deleted from Muse’s feed.

Written by Jamye Wooten, a Baltimore minister and activist who founded an “information ministry” called KineticsLive, the post says the IMA committed a “betrayal” by endorsing Cardin rather than Muse.

“Let’s be clear,” Wooten writes. “You will not see any group of Jewish Rabbis holding a press conference or inviting African-American candidates to the synagogue for their endorsement when a Jewish candidate is their opponent.”

Cardin is Jewish, which Wooten does not mention. But he does say: “Of the 84 white [Senators], 14 happen to be Jewish. Jews make up 3% of the U.S. population. On the other hand, African-Americans make up 13% of the U.S. population, but have zero representation.” (It’s not clear where Wooten is getting his numbers — there are 96 non-Hispanic white Senators.)

Asked about the issue Wednesday, Muse said that his campaign staff controls the Twitter feed, not him. He said the campaign chose to delete the tweet because “it appears that reporters were taking it in the wrong direction.”

In addition to tweeting, Muse’s campaign also shared the link on Facebook, and as of this posting it was still there.