Romney admits lurking behind ‘Pierre Delecto’ Twitter account

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the former Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor, is also, apparently, the man behind a Twitter account that uses the moniker “Pierre Delecto.”

Romney on Sunday admitted to McKay Coppins, a writer at the Atlantic, that he was responsible for the social media account, which he uses to covertly monitor political discourse and occasionally defend himself. It’s unclear what, if anything, Pierre Delecto is a reference to.

Several events preceded the admission.

First, the Atlantic published Sunday a profile of Romney, one of the few prominent Republican lawmakers to criticize President Trump over his efforts to press Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rivals.

Trump lashed out in response this month, calling the senator on Twitter a “pompous ‘ass’ who has been fighting me from the beginning.” In one tweet, the president used the hashtag “#IMPEACHMITTROMNEY.”

In the Atlantic profile, Romney admitted to having what he called a “lurker account” — essentially a profile under a different name that he operated in secret to monitor the political conversation. But he declined to divulge the name associated with the account.

The admission spurred curiosity, particularly that of the online newsmagazine Slate. Slate theorized that Pierre Delecto, or user @qaws9876, was Romney after it discovered the account among the Twitter followers of one of his grandchildren.

After Slate published its article, Coppins circled back with Romney to ask if he was indeed “Pierre Delecto.”

“Just spoke to @MittRomney on the phone, and asked him about Pierre Delecto,” Coppins said in a tweet. “His only response: ‘C’est moi.’ ”