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Romney confirms secret Twitter name, tries to hide tweets. Too late, Mitt … ‘welcome to #resistance’

October 21, 2019 | | Print Article
(Image: CNN screenshot)

Sen. Mitt Romney apparently has a secret Twitter account that was discovered after he confirmed its existence in an anti-Trump profile published on Sunday.

The Utah Republican appeared to disclose to McKay Coppins of The Atlantic that he was a “lurker” and had a second Twitter account which he used to anonymously follow politicians, journalists and others in an effort to keep up on the latest political discourse.

(Image: Wikimedia)

During the interview, Coppins asked the 72-year-old lawmaker about the #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY hashtag that President Trump had launched earlier this month. Romney responded in part by noting the use of his secret account.

“I won’t give you the name of it,” he said, but “I’m following 668 people.”

According to The Atlantic:

Swiping at his tablet, he recited some of the accounts he follows, including journalists, late-night comedians (“What’s his name, the big redhead from Boston?”), and athletes. Trump was not among them. “He tweets so much,” Romney said, comparing the president to one of his nieces who overshares on Instagram.

Soon after the Atlantic piece was published, Slate contributor Ashley Feinberg uncovered the account after some digging around. With no profile image, the Twitter user @qaws9876 appeared to be Romney under the name “Pierre Delecto.”

According to Feinberg:

This account joined the site in July of 2011, just one month after Romney announced his run for president. The majority of people it follows are either political reporters, politicians, political operatives, or pundits. Though it also follows noted big redhead from Boston Conan O’Brien. Pierre Delecto appears to be a fan of the late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, too, as well as current and former NFL players Tom Brady and Brett Favre, respectively.

Pierre Delecto currently follows 702 accounts, which is a few more than the 668 Romney admitted to Coppins, but it’s certainly possible to follow 30 additional accounts over the course of a few weeks, especially for a user that appears to have recently upped its Twitter activity.

The first to follow the account was Romney’s eldest son Tagg, followed soon by Boston.com politics editor Glen Johnson, according to Feinberg. The account also follows several Romney family members in addition to journalists, lawmakers and former campaign advisers from Romney’s 2012 presidential run and his Senate campaign.

Coppins updated the published piece in The Atlantic later on Sunday, noting that after reaching out to Romney to confirm that the Pierre Delecto account was his, he responded: “C’est moi” — which is French for “it’s me.”

“Of the 257 tweets the account has liked over the last eight years, 30 of them came from the official @SenatorRomney account, 28 came from the official @MittRomney account, seven were tweets quoting either the @SenatoryRomney or @MittRomney accounts, and three included a direct mention of one or the other,” Feinberg wrote.

By 10 p.m. Sunday evening, the account had been made private.

But screenshots of Romney’s tweets from the account were soon popping up on Twitter and Feinberg had captured many of the images in the Slate article.

 

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Frieda Powers
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