Frank Aquila, a partner at a prominent law firm headquartered in New York City, told White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to "rot in hell" on Twitter in response to her praise of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.).
In a now-deleted tweet, the Sullivan & Cromwell LLP partner quote-tweeted Sanders praising Graham for having "more decency and courage than every Democrat member of the committee combined."
"God bless him," Sanders added.
.@LindseyGrahamSC has more decency and courage than every Democrat member of the committee combined. God bless him.
— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) September 27, 2018
Sanders' tweet was in response to Graham unleashing on Senate Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee during Thursday's hearing. Graham called the Democrats' handling of the accusations against Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh "the most unethical sham since I've been in politics."
"If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us!" Graham shouted. "What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020! You said that, not me!"
"@PressSec I never knew you had a sense of humor OMG!!!! How funny!!!! Rot in Hell you B!tch," Aquila tweeted among several laughing emojis.
Aquila would eventually delete his entire Twitter account after receiving backlash, which included New York Magazine journalist Yashar Ali calling him out for hypocrisy.
"This is how bad things have gotten. A major corporate lawyer like @FAquila calling a woman a bitch to somehow defend a woman who talked about her sexual violence trauma today. Everything is terrible," Ali tweeted.
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1045487239629746176
Aquila has donated over $36,000 to Democrats, including $33,400 to the Democratic National Committee and $2,700 to Hillary Clinton's failed 2016 presidential campaign. He also donated $500 to former President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign.