Here's How the World Learned About Pierre Delecto, Mitt Romney's Twitter Alter Ego
The moniker "Pierre Delecto" sounds like the name of a Mission Impossible villain or a fancy footwear brand, but somehow it's actually the alter ego of a veteran American politician. Here's how the world came to know that Mitt Romney's been lurking Twitter under a hilariously fake pseudonym.
On Saturday, The Atlantic ran an interview with Romney, catching up with the freshman senator and frequent Trump critic. In the course of the interview, Romney shared his thoughts on the president, his first impressions of the Senate—and the fact that he was the proud owner of a secret shadow Twitter account. This is what he had to say about it:
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.
That inspired Slate reporter Ashley Feinberg to go on a mission to track down the account. Tracing an anonymous Twitter account armed only with the information that it counts Conan O’Brien among its 448 follows seems pretty tough, but Feinberg took a really smart approach: She looked to Romney’s family’s accounts, figuring that the senator, "a known family man, would want to keep close tabs on his offspring.” One of his grandkids had under 500 followers, so Feinberg combed through them until she found a likely account—user @qaws9876, which went by the handle Pierre Delecto.
From there, Feinberg built a sold case for Pierre Delecto being Mitt Romney in a fake mustache and beret. The first accounts Pierre followed were Romney’s son, Tagg, reporters who’d covered Romney’s campaigns, and the kind of Republicans you’d imagine Mitt Romney would be a fan of—like the late John McCain and Charles Krauthammer.
Pierre's account is now private, but Feinberg screengrabbed the 10 tweets it published before everything was locked down. Among them were several tweets coming to the defense of Mitt Romney. After Soledad O’Brien retweeted a report from The Hill headlined “Mitt Romney says he may not endorse Trump in 2020” with the comment “Utter lack of a moral compass,” Pierre chimed in. “Only Republican to hit Trump on Mueller report, only one to hit Trump on character time and again, so Soledad, you think he’s the one without moral compass?” Pierre also “liked” a ton of Romney-centric tweets.
After the Slate piece ran, McKay Coppins, who wrote the original Atlantic piece, got Romney on the ringer, and got confirmation of Feinberg’s rock-solid sleuthing. "Just spoke to @MittRomney on the phone, and asked him about Pierre Delecto,” Coppins later Tweeted. "His only response: "C'est moi.”
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