In unprecedented concurrence, both Clinton ("Too late") and Trump ("Huge") think Telegram app is great

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Telegram, new app that automatically deletes messages gains favor among politicians

Message self-destruct app gains surprise advocates

The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that an encrypted messaging app that allows users to delete their texts automatically after just a few seconds has become a favored way of communicating among some San Francisco supervisors and their aides.

Utilization of the app is raising questions about whether technological advances are subverting public-records laws.

The First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit public interest organization dedicated to, among other things, more open and accountable government, claims that self-deleting apps create risks to government accountability saying public officials should be restricted in their use of them.

Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, said, “If these tools of secrecy are freely available in government, they will be used particularly by the most powerful people to keep secret the most sensitive information.”

Despite pleas from open government advocates, Telegram, and apps like it, seem to gaining favor among the political elite.

At a campaign stop in Queens New York, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton was asked about apps like Telegram.

“Unfortunately too late for me. I wish Telegram was available when I first set up my private server as Secretary of State,” Clinton said, adding, “If I had used something like Telegram back then I could have texted to my heart’s content knowing that when the right-wing zealots who are, and have always been, out to get me tried, they would have had nothing to subpoena.”

Republican front-runner, Donald J. Trump, contacted campaigning at a pizza restaurant in Manhattan where he was eating pizza with a knife and fork, also embraced the idea of Telegram.

"I think this is huge, particularly for someone like me who’s constantly making incredible statements that have to be walked back. Having an app that actually automatically deletes what I write after a few minutes is, you know, huge. I love this app.”

Neither Republican candidate Ted Cruz nor Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders expressed interest in an app like Telegram.

“Look, what we say and write is sacred, our God-given right,” said Cruz, going on to say, “Devices that interfere with that right just go against what our Lord and Savior intended.”

For his part, Bernie Sanders said, “This sounds like a tool for the one-percent, allowing them to say and write what they want with no accountability. I say we need to break up the big app makers and put texting back in the thumbs of the people.”

Ohio governor John Kasich could not be reached for comment as he, the Republican elite's favored mainstream candidate, was busy watching TV replays of Jordan Spieth’s historic collapse at last weekend’s Masters golf tournament.