Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer backed off on his suggestion earlier this week that Twitter allows President Barack Obama to use more than 140 characters in his tweets, but some Republican primary voters evidently still have doubts.
Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling tested Fleischer’s debunked and ultimately retracted conspiracy theory in a survey released Friday, finding support and uncertainty among Republicans nationwide. The poll showed that 13 percent of GOP primary voters think Twitter does permit Obama to exceed the 140 character limit while a majority — 52 percent — said they weren’t sure. Thirty-six percent said they don’t think Obama enjoys a larger character limit than the rest of Twitter users.
The former press secretary under George W. Bush was widely ridiculed after he said that a tweet from the @BarackObama Twitter account — which is run by Organizing for Action — had gone over the 140-character limit and wondered if the president gets to “play by different rules.”
But there were actually only 136 characters in the tweet that Fleischer questioned and, moments later, he was forced to walk back his suggestion.
This post has been updated.
