A New York Times contributing writer who is reportedly the Biden administration's top candidate for a seat on the National Economic Council recently purged his Twitter feed of thousands of Twitter posts, many of which mocked conservatives and Republican leaders.
Tim Wu, who is also a Columbia Law School professor, recently deleted nearly 11,000 tweets that he sent prior to Dec. 2, 2020, Fox News reported on Thursday.
Wu also appeared to scrub several highly charged partisan messages he posted on Twitter after Dec. 2, 2020, according to archived copies reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. In one dating from Dec. 12, Wu wrote that a Wall Street Journal op-ed that criticized Jill Biden was "a reminder that the old-fashioned pre-Trump conservatives were pretty wretched too."
The news comes as President Joe Biden's nominee for Office of Management and Budget director, Neera Tanden, faces bipartisan opposition in the Senate for her own tweets attacking conservatives and Bernie Sanders supporters.
Politico reported earlier this week that Wu is likely to be appointed to the White House National Economic Council. The position does not require confirmation.
On Nov. 9, 2020, Wu mused: "I feel like a symposium could well devoted [sic] to, who was worse, Bush or Trump, and why. Does still seem to stir debate. I am personally torn, mainly because of the Iraq war on false pretenses, the torture, and then more torture."
The Times contributor encouraged Trump administration officials to intentionally defy the president's orders, claiming that "officials who decline to obey Trump's orders are, in fact, not so much committing treason, but avoiding it by obeying their oath to uphold the Constitution."
Wu also used Donald Trump's hospitalization with coronavirus as an opportunity to take a swipe at conservatives.
"Even if not a single person in the world had said something disrespectful while Trump is in hospital, the right would need to invent that person to hold on to their precious sense of victimhood," Wu wrote.
Last January, Wu took aim at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).
"I wonder what exactly was going on in Mitch McConnell's brain as he swore 'I will do impartial justice?'" Wu wrote. "My guess: 'blah blah blah do I hear someone talking, blah-di-blah blah blah.'"
In other tweets, Wu, who clerked for Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer in the 1990s, referred to Brett Kavanaugh as "that screamer" and a "credibly accused sexual assailant."
"This has transcended any question of 'what will happen to the Court' and [has] become the question of whether villainy will be punished or not," Wu wrote.
Neither Wu nor the White House responded to requests for comment.
Although Wu would not need Senate confirmation to join the National Economic Council, that isn't the case for Tanden, Biden's pick for OMB director who has faced controversy due to her politically charged tweets. Last Friday, Democratic senator Joe Manchin (W.Va.) announced that he would oppose Tanden because of her "overtly partisan statements," a move that will likely sink her chances of getting majority approval.