The tweet originally came from an 18-year-old Florida voter named Yuri. It read: “I have no idea why any woman/minority can vote for Romney. You have to be stupid to vote for such a racist/misogynistic t**t.”
Although Longoria deleted the tweet shortly after, it was too late to stop many of her 4.5 million followers from seeing it and attacking her. Pundit Michelle Malkin and conservative website Drudge Report lashed out at Longoria for the tweets. Others felt personally attacked. One user tweeted at Longoria “I’m Hispanic intelligent educated woman.I’m voting 4 Romney.If ur going 2 represent Hisp.women pls refrain from being so vulgar!” Another said “Don’t go speaking for me. I too am a latina & I vote for Romney. ‘Women voters are not victims.’”
Longoria has since apologized for the retweet.
“I use Twitter as a platform for all Americans and their opinions. Sorry if people were offended by retweet. Obviously not my words or my personal view. I respect all Americans #FreedomOfSpeech,” Longoria tweeted.
She later sent another tweet clarifying the original message.
“And for the record I have never personally called any conservative women stupid. I think u are all beautiful and strong and smart! I appreciate those conservative women who have sent me some great articles! I respect u, stay involved!”
Although Longoria apologized for the controversial post, she originally seemed to distance herself from her retweets in general by talking about a possible Twitter malfunction.
She tweeted: “Is anyone else’s twitter bugging out? There are things in my timeline I didn’t retweet today. Hmmm? Standby trying to fix!”
While Longoria did not specifically say if the bug she tweeted about was referring to the attack on Governor Romney, she sent another message saying that she was only talking about a problem with her twitter in the morning.
“Wow I wish people would read more carefully. I said my twitter was acting up THIS morning only…” she tweeted.
Longoria wasn’t the only one taking heat for the comments. The teen who originally wrote the message has said she was getting attacked as well. She told BuzzFeed that she wishes Longoria hadn’t deleted the tweet and left her to deal with the critics alone. The teen later deleted the tweet herself.
It’s been just one week since Eva Longoria stirred up controversy by retweeting a prison rape joke aimed at Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. by Jacquellena Carrero [NBC]