New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush returned from a self-imposed Twitter exile with a vengeance Thursday, tweeting out his latest article before releasing pent-up Twitter fire.
The first tweet, a link to a recent story Ben Carson’s unfortunate $31,000 dining set, quickly racked up more than 2,000 retweets.
Ben Carson inquired about the price/legality of using HUD $$$ for official portraits. Staff told him it would cost $25k and would violate federal law. https://t.co/62luiArRlh
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) March 14, 2018
Thrush returned “to promote my stories and the great work of others on a new beat that ain’t typically Twitter candy,” he told TheWrap.
Last year, Thrush caused a minor stir when he officially swore off the platform, saying it was “too much of a distraction.” The New York Times reporter walked back his original plan to delete the account outright — Thrush has more than 340,000 followers — and elected to have it sit dormant.
His last tweet before yesterday was from Sept. 19, 2017.
This account is dormant as of 9/19/17.
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 19, 2017
Hey folks — I've decided to delete my Twitter account at midnight. Too much of a distraction. DM me for contact info. Thanks for reading!
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) September 18, 2017
Thrush’s decision came a time that would prove to be the last few months before he got caught up in the New York Times’ most visible #MeToo scandal.
In November, Vox Media published a lengthy piece accusing Thrush of multiple instances of misconduct while he was a reporter at Politico. After an internal investigation, the Times allowed Thrush to keep his job, but suspended him for two months and ordered him to a new beat covering “the social safety net in the age of Trump, particularly HUD and HHS”
Thrush is also an MSNBC contributor and one-time regular on “Morning Joe.” It remains to be seen whether he will ever join Joe and Mika back on set.