The Defense Department said Thursday it "erroneously" retweeted a message calling for the resignation of President Donald Trump and Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) over sexual assault allegations.
The tweet, posted by @ProudResister and retweeted to the Pentagon’s more than 5.2 million followers, also called on Alabama’s Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore to drop out of the race. At least eight women have accused Moore of sexual harassment or assault while they were in their teens.
"The solution is simple… Roy Moore: Step down from the race. Al Franken: Resign from congress. Donald Trump: Resign from the presidency. GOP: Stop making sexual assault a partisan issue. It’s a crime as is your hypocrisy," the tweet read.
The message was posted briefly to the official Defense Department twitter account before being taken down.
Col. Rob Manning, director of the Defense Department’s press operations, swiftly issued a statement acknowledging an "authorized operator" of the official account "erroneously retweeted content that would not be endorsed by" the Pentagon.
Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White posted the same statement to twitter, where it was retweeted by the Defense Department.
An authorized operator of the @DeptofDefense’s official Twitter site erroneously retweeted content that would not be endorsed by the Department of Defense. The operator caught this error and immediately deleted it.
— Dana W. White - DoD (@ChiefPentSpox) November 16, 2017