Senator Mitt Romney admitted to tweeting under the secret handle Pierre Delecto.After The Atlantic reported that Romney used a secret Twitter account, an internet sleuth got to work trying to find it.
The Atlantic reported: ‘He explained that he uses a secret Twitter account—“What do they call me, a lurker?”—to keep tabs on the political conversation. “I won’t give you the name of it,” he said, but “I’m following 668 people.” 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. “I love her, but it’s like, Ah, it’s too much.”‘
Slate’s Ashley Feinberg soon figured it out, identifying Twitter user @qaws9876 aka Pierre Delecto: “In general, the account follows everyone you might expect someone like Mitt Romney to follow. There’s the late Charles Krauthammer, the late John McCain, Larry Kudlow, Rupert Murdoch, Bill Kristol, Matt Schapp, and—who else but—Peggy Noonan. It also follows all the people you would expect someone who is exactly Mitt Romney to follow. There are all of the available Romney children, a number of former Romney advisers and aides (like, a lot), and quite a few reporters who’ve directly covered Romney or his various campaigns (like Ashley Parker, Matt Viser, Phillip Rucker, Steven Peoples, and Coppins himself, all of whom were on the Romney beat in 2012, among others). Then, there are the accounts it’s hard to imagine anyone but Mitt Romney following.”
Romney later confirmed that he had been outed.
