Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker caused quite a stir online Wednesday after his social media team made a major miscalculation in a tweet commemorating the arrival of English settlers to Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.
It's hard to believe that it has been 505 years since the first settlers arrived at Jamestown. – TW pic.twitter.com/HTmnzEkuKI
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) May 13, 2015While the tweet — signed “TW” for Team Walker — had the correct year settlers arrived to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, a bit of bad math placed the Republican’s likely presidential campaign team 97 years in the future.
The Internet, naturally, leapt into action:
What year do you think it is? https://t.co/lOKlFf6zZV
— Eric Reif (@esreif) May 13, 2015@ScottWalker Of course it's hard to believe, considering that it's not 505 but 408
— Juan Camilo Latorre (@MonsieurDLaTour) May 13, 2015.@ScottWalker might want to consult your calculator.
— Michael Hopper (@mhopp7) May 13, 2015Walker and his team didn’t get off with just a math lesson, however. People on Twitter also took Team Walker’s celebration of the English settlers as an opportunity to pounce on the governor for his opposition to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
@ScottWalker i'm guessing your immigration policy would not allow them on shore!
— Michael (@iShakeTheThrone) May 13, 2015The all-but-declared Republican presidential candidate has taken a tougher stance on immigration policy than some of his soon-to-be primary rivals, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, particularly with recent remarks suggesting the U.S. should potentially reduce legal immigration, too.
Team Walker sent a corrected tweet about an hour later. Unfortunately, that tweet didn’t have as much reach on social media as the first one. It had under 40 retweets compared to the first which earned over 350 retweets by yesterday afternoon.
Twitter typo from Team Walker. Last post should have been 408 years. -TW
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) May 13, 2015
Yasmin Aslam