Mitt Romney admits to using secret Twitter account to keep tabs on news and ‘lurk’

Mitt Romney has admit to using a secretive alias on an inconspicuous Twitter page after a journalist made the discovery following revelations of the profile’s existence in a new profile on the Republican senator.

Mr Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who was elected to represent Utah in the US Senate during the 2018 midterms, confirmed he uses the profile named “Pierre Delecto” after telling The Atlantic he had a secret Twitter account to “keep tabs on the political conversation”.

“What do they call me, a lurker?” he quipped in the profile interview published over the weekend. Mr Romney did not provide any additional hints about the account in the story, besides saying he followed less than 700 other accounts.

That’s when Slate journalist Ashley Feinberg started digging, looking into the senator’s social media profiles and that of his family members.

She published an article on Sunday titled “This Sure Looks Like Mitt Romney’s Secret Twitter Account” after finding the “Pierre Delecto” page. The actual account handle is @qwas9876.

The reporter noted some interesting facts that seemingly connected the page to Mr Romney: for starts, its first follow was Tagg Romney, the senator’s eldest son.

The account’s second follow was for a journalist who covered Mr Romney closely in 2011, when the page was first created.

Another interesting connection the account had to Mr Romney was that it had only tweeted 10 times over the years since it was created, and most of those were largely to support, defend or clarify Mr Romney’s positions.

The account defended Mr Romney’s criticism of Mr Trump in multiple tweets to journalists and media personalities, and liked tweets relevant to news and positive comments surrounding the senator.

It followed the senator’s children, as well as his advisers and top aides, according to the report.

When The Atlantic reached back out to confirm whether the account Ms Feinberg discovered was actually the senator, he replied: “C’est moi”.

The “Pierre Delecto” account was following 702 accounts had 1,171 followers at the time of publication. It was locked and had its tweets protected as of Monday morning.

Read more

Can Mitt Romney really bring Trump down through impeachment?