Sen. Grassley Blames iPhone Autocorrect For Poorly Spelled Tweets

James CrugnaleApr 9th, 2012, 11:39 am

Iowa Republican Senator and prolific Twitter user Chuck Grassley hit back against criticism that he has poor spelling in an interview with Legal Times’ Todd Ruger on Friday, blaming his iPhone’s autocorrect settings for his sloppy tweets.

“Your tweets draw attention/criticism, often because they sometimes have random punctuation or capital letters. What is the story behind why you leave those in there? Do you pay attention to anyone’s reaction to your tweets?” Ruger asked.

“I think there are a couple of factors involved,” Grassley replied. “I suppose a lot has to do with the automatic correcting done by my iPhone. Second, I love Tweeting, but I don’t like to type. So, I probably type and hit send a little too quickly.”

“Sure, I pay attention to reactions to my Tweets,” Grassley pressed. “That’s part of the purpose, it’s the two-way communication needed in representative government at work.”

Ruger asked the senator if he “ever thought about quitting Twitter, or having a staff member control the account.”

“I haven’t, although I’m sure my staff has!” Grassley quipped.

Grassley drew fire this weekend when President Obama‘s chief strategist David Axelrod mocked the 78-year-old Senator’s spelling, saying a six-year-old had hacked his phone.

Grassley made a campaign ad in 2010 explaining why he used the service to connect with constituents:

(h/t BuzzFeed)

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