Dirty Delete: Oklahoma governor rides the red wave into hot water
Analysis
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) is thirsty for power.
Like Republicans who rail against “big government” online, in reality, Stitt likes to give himself more control and gleefully post about taking power from local governments.
That’s not his only contradiction.
He repeatedly tweets about how fiscally responsible Oklahoma is under his watch, but the Frontier reports Stitt handed out $8 million in pandemic education relief with little oversight. This led the feds to investigate financial mismanagement and a holdup in additional distribution of relief.
Dylan Goforth (no relation to me), the editor-in-chief of Frontier, classifies Stitt as the living embodiment of the political cliché, “I’m a businessman, not a politician.”
“I think Stitt’s persona—the big, brash, loud cutthroat CEO—has worked for him personally as governor as he’s tamed, for lack of a better word, a bunch of state agencies and boards and bent them to his will,” Goforth told the Daily Dot.
While other states put guardrails in place, Oklahoma let the funds flow so freely that “hundreds of thousands of dollars were misspent,” Goforth said.
Stitt occasionally shows glimmers of moderation. Online, he urged people to get vaccinated and praised George Floyd’s murderer being brought to justice.
But he’s also put nonsense on the timeline.
Stitt’s celebrated a billboard lambasting him as a “meathead” by having a barbecue in front of it—a stunt so successful that a whole 390 people have watched the video.
As the nation braced for the pandemic in March 2020, Stitt tweeted a photo from a crowded restaurant, bragging, “It’s packed tonight!” The backlash was so intense that he deleted the tweet and declared a statewide emergency the next day. (You can see the tweet below).
Stitt later made himself into a meme by holding a press conference to present a road sign declaring “Oklahoma is #9” in bridge safety. Pro tip: Only brag if you’re #1.
Without a shred of irony, Stitt posted a photo of himself wakeboarding to celebrate ‘Murican “freedoms” days after he tweeted about how “excited” he was that abortion was outlawed in Oklahoma.
He’s so into freedumb that he banned and blacklisted TikTok for state employees and on state devices and networks. Other politicians have made similar moves because TikTok is owned by a Chinese company—but as a Daily Dot contributor pointed out, this is lipstick on the pig that is Republicans’ history of blocking meaningful data privacy reform.
Stitt has profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Dirtiest Delete
If Stitt had a time machine, he’d probably never have posted the since-deleted tweet of himself and his kids eating out at the beginning of the pandemic.
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