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发帖数: 4091 | 1 Steve Cohen says Cyndi Lauper tweets were joke on media
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Steve Cohen and Cyndia Lauper are pictured in this composite. | AP Photo,
Reuters
Cohen and Lauper had been at a White House event earlier in the week. | AP
Photo, Reuters
By KATE NOCERA | 4/12/13 1:17 PM EDT Updated: 4/12/13 2:14 PM EDT
Rep. Steve Cohen says a deleted tweet from Tuesday on Cyndi Lauper was just
a big joke.
And revenge.
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The Tennessee Democrat sent two eyebrow-raising tweets to Lauper and quickly
deleted them.
(PHOTOS: Best celebrity tweets on politics in 2012)
But he claims the joke’s on the media for how it speculated about February
tweets to a young woman later revealed to be the congressman’s daughter.
“I tweeted exactly what I wanted to tweet and I deleted exactly what I
wanted to delete,” Cohen told reporters at a hastily called press
conference Friday.
“Because in this age, which I learned a couple of months ago with a
situation with some very loving tweets to my daughter, I discovered the best
way to get a message out is to tweet and delete,” he added. “Because the
press will immediately assume the worst, something salacious, something
nefarious and jump on it.”
He also blamed the Sunlight Foundation’s “Politwoops,” which posts
deleted tweets from lawmakers, including Cohen’s.
Cohen and Lauper had been at a White House event earlier in the week that
celebrated Memphis soul music, at which Lauper performed. Cohen said his
tweets could serve to bring more attention to Memphis music than a standard
press release or floor speech ever would.
”It was a hot show, Memphis music is hot, Cyndi Lauper’s performance was
hot, so was Justin Timberlake’s… I wanted the world to know about it,” he
said.
He tweeted twice:
“@cyndilauper great night,couldn’t believe how hot u were.see you again
next Tuesday.try a little tenderness. http://t.co/zz4Orccryf,” read a tweet from the Tennessee Democrat’s verified Twitter account.
Another one read: “Cyndi,Wow what a night!See you next Tuesday and Try a
little tenderness again!Wow!What a special night.Thanks Steve.”
Asked if he felt the language he used was an appropriate way to speak about
a female performer, Cohen quipped that if he had said Justin Timberlake was
“hot,” “you all would have written that I was gay, because his
performance was hot too. And so were the Alabama Shakes. And if it was the
Alabama Shakes you might have thought I was trying to get into a group scene
.”
Cohen seemed to have no regrets.
“The fact that somebody might have thought that I thought that Cyndi Lauper
was attractive, I don’t think that’s a terrible thing,” he said. “Birds
do it, bees do it, even ordinary fleas!”
Cohen said that while his staff was unaware of his plan, he had told Reps.
John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) and Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) that he would be having some
fun with the press.
“I said, boys, wait till you see what I do this week with the press,” he
said.
Courtney’s office said he found out about this from Cohen at the Nationals
game on Wednesday, once Cohen’s alleged plan was already in motion.
The congressman denied that he was trying to cover up a mistake, or distract
from a story that may come out later.
“No, I’m probably going to nap,” he said. “I stayed out late last night.”
On Thursday, Cohen took to the House floor and again touched on the subject
of Lauper.
“While there were a lot of great performers there, I want to put a
particular shout-out to Ms. Cyndi Lauper, ‘cause she’s special,” he said
of the White House event.
He added that she sang, “Try a Little Tenderness” and that she gave “a
phenomenal performance.” Cohen also cited her album “Memphis Blues” and
credited her for highlighting blues music.
“She’s a phenomenal lady and I give a special shout-out to Cyndi Lauper
and Memphis music,” he concluded.
The concert, part of the series “In Performance at the White House,” will
air on PBS Tuesday night. |
|
