U.S. House candidate in Michigan faces scrutiny over deleted social media posts

Democratic congressional nominee William Lawrence is facing scrutiny over social media posts he deleted before launching his campaign for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, according to an investigation by CNN’s KFile.

The posts, which were reportedly put up years ago under a previous social media account, expressed support for positions that Lawrence has said he no longer holds. They included calls to abolish or defund police departments and prisons, support for open migration and proposals to abolish the U.S. Senate.

There were other posts that criticized moderate Democrats and questioned the traditional nuclear family. 

Among the most inflammatory posts was a set of lyrics Lawrence posted in December 2021 after then-Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, opposed major elements of the Biden administration's climate and economic agenda. The lyrics included profanity directed at political opponents and called on them to “hurry up and die.”

CNN reported that the posts date back to the time when Lawrence was building his career as a progressive activist. He was a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a climate organization that helped push the Green New Deal into the national political debate.

Lawrence has since attempted to distance himself from some of the views expressed in the deleted posts.

CNN reported that Lawrence said that he currently does not support defunding the police or open borders despite what his earlier posts suggested.

“Like many millennials, I’ve done a lot of thinking out loud on the internet,” Lawrence said, according to CNN.