About a couple of days ago, maybe about a week, "Covfefe" was plastered all over my news feeds. Many people questioned what it meant, others questioned how it was pronounced, and almost everyone turned it into a joke. Memes could be found mocking Covfefe, using it as a reaction, or just putting the word out there because it was funny on its own. Although it seems ridiculous, Covfefe actually has some serious implications.
Some of you might not know what I'm referring to when I mention it, so here's some background on "Covfefe". At around midnight on Wednesday, May 31st, our current president, Donald Trump, sent out an unfinished and now deleted tweet stating "Despite the negative press covfefe." From there, Twitter went wild, and soon "Covfefe" had spread throughout the internet and reached news stations such as CNN and ABC. Trump deleted the tweet, but left many guessing about the meaning behind "Covfefe"—many believing it was a misspelling of the word "coverage"— and even dared others to figure it out. On Monday, June 12th, Illinois Representative Mike Quigley proposed a bill that would prevent current United States Presidents from deleting social media posts that they've created.
This wouldn't be a new bill altogether, but an amendment to the already existing Presidential Records Act. This amendment called the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically For Engagement Act (or COVFEFE Act for short) would require the National Archives to keep a record of all social media interactions that the President undertakes. This is because—as we've all been told multiple times—everything that goes on the internet, stays on the internet (whether in its original form, or a copy). People can still interact with posts, long after they are relevant. According to the current Presidential Records Act, all posts made by the President, (while they're in office at least) are archived by the U.S. Archives Office. If you wanted, you could look back at former President Barack Obama's tweets which are now under the handle @POTUS44.
Trump's tweets, however, aren't covered under the current Records Act, mainly because he uses his personal Twitter account to tweet, rather than using the official @POTUS account. Trump has been warned about deleting statements he has made over social media, but because he uses his personal account, deletion of those statements are in a legal gray area. The COVFEFE Act would keep Trump, and every other future president accountable for what they say on every electronic platform they use. The purpose of the bill isn't to pry into the private lives of our president, but rather to ensure "additional preservation of presidential communication and statements while promoting government accountability and transparency," according to a press release on Quigley's website.
