Twitter Is Roasting Mike Pence for Using a Private AOL Email to Conduct State Business

By Steven Lerner 2 min read

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s administration has been anything but quiet. There have been scandals and controversies — now including a recent one involving Vice President Mike Pence.

On Thursday, the Indianapolis Star reported that Pence —while serving as Governor of Indiana — used a private AOL email address to conduct sensitive matters and homeland security issues. The email address was also hacked during the summer.

“Similar to previous governors, during his time as Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal email account,” read a statement from Pence’s office on Thursday. “As Governor, Mr. Pence fully complied with Indiana law regarding email use and retention. Government emails involving his state and personal accounts are being archived by the state consistent with Indiana law, and are being managed according to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.”

The irony about this scandal was that Pence criticized Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for her ongoing email scandal.

.@realDonaldTrump and I commend the FBI for reopening an investigation into Clinton's personal email server because no one is above the law.

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) October 28, 2016

Twitter returned the favor by roasting Pence’s irresponsible decision to handle government matters with a private email address, and the hypocrisy of Trump to attack Clinton but not Pence. The hashtag #PenceEmails was trending on Friday. Several lambasted the vice president not just for his use of private email, but that it was a technologically antiquated AOL account.

https://twitter.com/get_a_spine/status/837634612931211264

Dreamt Republicans screamed lock him up when Mike Pence used AOL email that was hacked for official business, then I woke up #PenceEmails

— 💉♻️🇺🇸 Christopher Zullo (@ChrisJZullo) March 3, 2017

Pence's email scandal is huge. Russian hackers were able to learn the identity of 2015's Boonville Corn Queen WEEKS before the Harvest Fest

— The Discourse Lover (@Trillburne) March 3, 2017

https://twitter.com/PalmerReport/status/837554546343751680

What's more embarrassing, @mike_pence having unsecured email or the fact that it was with AOL? #PenceEmails #comeonoldman

— Sarah Keith (@lacunasmatatas) March 3, 2017

Maybe Russia can help find the emails hacked from Mike Pence's account when he used a private email as governor. #PenceEmails

— Roger Foster (@DrRogerFoster) March 3, 2017

I guess your emails only matter if you're a strong, independant woman. #PenceEmails pic.twitter.com/eKD8DRriTX

— Protect Kamala Harris ✊ (@DisavowTrump20) March 3, 2017

https://twitter.com/Marv_Vien/status/837671430783324160

Ah, it's our daily reminder that we lost out on the chance for greatness in American leadership because of misogyny.#PenceEmails

— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) March 3, 2017

https://twitter.com/Auroreanowl/status/837476492439277572

So, Pence can use a private email address and that's just fine? The #GOP is a hypocritical disaster. #PenceEmails

— Ryan Duncan (@ryansview) March 3, 2017

It should be noted that there is a slight difference between Pence’s email scandal and the one that plagued Secretary of State Clinton. Unlike Pence, Clinton set up a private email server in her own home for government matters. She also had access to classified material as Secretary of State, which Pence did not have in Indiana.