A Democratic lawmaker took to the House floor on Tuesday, imploring President-elect Donald Trump to cut back on social media.
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) expressed concern about Trump’s provocative use of Twitter over the course of the presidential transition.
The president-elect used Twitter to call for cancelation of a Boeing contract for a new Air Force One plane on Tuesday, erroneously saying it cost more than $4 billion. (The company says the price tag is only $170 million.)
{mosads}The president-elect has also taken aim at China for currency manipulation, said people who burn the American flag should lose their citizenship and claimed without evidence that millions of people voted illegally in the presidential election, among other inflammatory tweets since winning the election.
“What we have right now is a president-elect running around the world with his [Twitter account] making statements that are disruptive and distractive for the American public,” McDermott said on the House floor.
“He calls Taiwan and raises questions about our relationship with China as though he were the Secretary of State, but he has not even found anyone to do that job,” he said, referencing Trump’s phone call last week with Taiwan’s leader that departed from decades of diplomatic protocol.
“He should be in the transition office figuring out how he makes a smooth transition of the American government from the efficiently run government of Mr. Obama to his administration, not making the decisions himself and going out and announcing them through his tweet at 3 o’clock in the morning because he can’t sleep,” he added.
The Washington Democrat had some advice for Trump: “Stop tweeting, Mr. President-elect.”
Earlier Tuesday, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) dismissed criticism of Trump speaking with the Taiwanese president and downplayed the significance of the president-elect’s tweets.
“I’m not gonna get into tweets. You think I’m gonna sit here and — and comment on the daily tweets? I’m just not gonna be doing that,” Ryan said at a press conference.
McDermott, who’s retiring at the end of this year after 28 years in the House, expressed worry for his colleagues in the next session of Congress.
“We have a democratic process. And the burden on the House of Representatives as I leave it — I mean, in some ways I’m sorry to be leaving it because I think it’s going to be a very tough session in helping the new president understand how a democracy actually works,” he said.