A Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer has stirred a row after the party’s official X account insulted White House adviser Stephen Miller.The controversy began when the Democrats’ official account replied to one of Miller’s posts with the words: “shut up you ugly f***.” Because the message came from the national party’s verified account, rather than a personal or campaign account, it went viral.Soon after, Paulina Mangubat, a senior digital strategist at the DNC, appeared to reference the exchange from her own X account. She wrote: “Team just ratioed Stephen Miller, who is ugly, evil, cruel, and bald.”30-year-old Mangubat currently serves as deputy chief mobilisation officer at DNC, according to her LinkedIn profile. She was previously the party’s digital content and creative director and has worked on rapid-response messaging and social media strategy for Democrats. She graduated from Barnard College in 2017 and has also worked as digital and creative director for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s campaign, where she handled online messaging and campaign communications.Online speculation linked Mangubat directly to the Democrats’ X account, but the account is operated by a bigger social media team made up of around a dozen staffers. The group has freedom to react online and shape the party’s tone on social media platforms.The exchange began after the Democrats’ account posted support for Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. Miller responded by falsely claiming Democrats had nominated a transgender Senate candidate.“The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender Senate candidate,” Miller wrote, in what many interpreted as an attack on Talarico.In another post, Miller claimed Talarico was “transitioning”, despite there being no evidence that the candidate is transgender.The Democrats’ account responded with the now-viral insult, sparking backlash from conservatives.Mangubat was later publicly named by Katie Miller, Stephen Miller’s wife, who criticised the post and identified Mangubat as one of the people behind the account.In a post on X, Katie Miller described Mangubat as “unmarried with no kids” and said she should “put [her] name on it.”Mangubat responded by posting a picture of herself trying on wedding dresses and wrote: “Well, now seems like a good time to share that I’m getting married! We just put down the deposit on the venue and bought my dress lol.”The row came just one day after another controversy involving the Democrats’ X account. A Memorial Day post featuring 13 fallen US service members alongside criticism of Donald Trump was deleted after bipartisan criticism.Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth condemned the message, writing: “It is incredibly distasteful to use our heroic dead for a political attack on Memorial Day. I’m a Democrat and I condemn this post by the DNC.”
