Mitt Romney used the baller alias ‘Pierre Delecto’ for his lurker Twitter account

Mitt Romney Gathering on Primary Eve

In my mind, I have several cool aliases. I mean, I write under a nom de plume here, but even then, my real name is cracking through on the Gossip With Celebitchy podcast! But I also think about what kind of alias I would use if I, like, had to go undercover for some reason. What would me cool alias name be? Remy Rooter-Tooter, lmao. Something like that. But I guess we have to give it to Mitt Romney, because the man truly has more imagination than we originally gave him credit for. Mitt Romney is a sitting senator, a former presidential candidate, and one of the few Republicans publicly critical of Donald Trump. And Mitt Romney is also Pierre Delecto, Twitter lurker and online Romney defender. Yes. Give credit where it’s due, Ashley Feinberg discovered this for Slate:

Shortly after that, Romney confirmed it to the Atlantic:

Here’s the backstory:

Mitt Romney, the senator from Utah, former Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor, is also, apparently, the man behind a Twitter account that uses the moniker “Pierre Delecto.” Mr. 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 on Sunday a profile of Mr. Romney, one of the few prominent Republican lawmakers to criticize President Trump over his efforts to press Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rivals. Those efforts form the basis of an impeachment investigation by the House. Mr. 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, Mr. 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 Twitter user @qaws9876, was Mr. Romney after it discovered the account among the Twitter followers of one of his grandchildren.

Slate’s Ashley Feinberg found that Pierre Delecto’s first follower was Mr. Romney’s oldest son, Tagg. The account was created in 2011, shortly after Mr. Romney announced his intention to run for president. The account also followed all of Mr. Romney’s children who are on Twitter and several former advisers, according to Slate. The account also posted several telling replies to Romney-related tweets, which were captured by screenshot before the account was made private on Sunday night.

[From The New York Times]

You know what would really be fun? If a prominent politician had a lurker Twitter account where they could devote some time to a silly hobby they didn’t want anyone to know about, like knitting or model trains. Or if they had a lurker account which just followed cute-animal videos and kitten-photo accounts. But Pierre Delecto was actually tweeting political sh-t in defense of Mitt Romney. Which sucks. Still, a fun name. And yes, Trump is totally going to tweet about Pierre Delecto and I can’t wait to see how Trump mangles the spelling.

U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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36 Responses to “Mitt Romney used the baller alias ‘Pierre Delecto’ for his lurker Twitter account”

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  1. Arizona says:

    not a Romney fan, but the name and the way he confirmed it is really cracking me up.

    • Millennial says:

      Agreed, “c’est moi” cracked me up. I’ll grant that he’s funny.

      • Esmom says:

        I give him credit for owning up to it. You know a Trump would be denying it no matter how incontrovertible the evidence.

    • Erinn says:

      This. I can’t stand the guy, but this whole thing was the first story I read while still in bed this morning, and I actually laughed out loud. Still can’t stand him, but I’ll give him this one time ‘win’ for my amusement.

    • Same. Pierre Delecto. I’ll bet he uses that name with his wife at home. Probably wears a mask.

  2. M says:

    He’s still a piece of merde.

  3. Rapunzel says:

    Romney is really leaning in to his anti-Trump image. Let’s never forget he’s as bad as the rest of the GOP. He cozied up enough to Trump and if Trump would’ve had him, he’d be playing along. Just like niece Ronna.

  4. Esme says:

    Still water runs deep

  5. DaisySharp says:

    I don’t see the problem. I saw someone on twitter say it’s creepy, but I would totally do this. I guess I’m creepy!

    • Rapunzel says:

      I’m cool with the separate account. What’s creepy is him using it to defend himself.

      • Esmom says:

        I don’t know if it’s creepy as much as it is just human nature to want to defend himself. It’s not like the entire account was some kooky Romney stan. That would be creepy.

      • DaisySharp says:

        Exactly Es! That’s how I feel. And one of the tweets he liked about Rubio, hahhaha, I almost fell down. Oh boy, the tea, the tea!

      • Rapunzel says:

        Yeah, I initially thought this was one of those kooky stan type accounts but after checking it out, I think I see your guys’ point.

      • Christin says:

        I have long suspected that some celebrities do this (possibly on this site, too). That’s why a politician (quasi-celebrity) doing it isn’t completely surprising to me.

    • oui oui says:

      It makes me think of Dirk Diggler

  6. DR says:

    Ashley Feinberg also found Comey’s secret Twitter account – lol, what a unique journalistic niche.

    Besides defending himself online, Romney also follows the “Devin Nunes’ cow” account & liked tweets insulting Marco Rubio.

  7. Silas says:

    Very Louis XIV of Mitt, that response.

  8. Lightpurple says:

    He really should use the name I have called him since he first ran for Senate in Massachusetts: Willard Mittens.

  9. aang says:

    Mitt, Tagg, Josh, Ben, Craig. Are these people scared of running out of syllables?

  10. Esmom says:

    As someone with lurker accounts on both Twitter and IG, I get it. I follow my friends and family on FB as myself — although I am so ready to pull the plug. I follow politics on Twitter and I follow kittens and national parks on IG. My IG is extremely soothing.

  11. Sean says:

    What I found most interesting about Romney’s lurker account is that he follows several journalists that have been beating the drum so to speak about Trump’s involvement with Russia, etc. Hoping that will affect his decision when the time comes to vote whether or not Trump is removed from office.

    • Lightpurple says:

      Mittens will base his decision on what will work best for Mittens as he tries to maneuver himself into position to be the savior of the GOP and possibly grab the party’s 2020 nomination when Trump goes down

      • Christin says:

        He’s just waiting for his next takeover, isn’t he? (Political this time, not corporate, a la Bain.)

  12. dota says:

    Yup, I saw Pierre Delecto and Carlos Danger in a flame war on Just Jared. Pepé Le Pew would have used the same nickname online.

  13. Nicegirl says:

    I will be Amber Valentine 💕❤️. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🖖🏽

  14. huncamunca says:

    I got such a laugh out of this. It’s pretty bad when Romney seems precious, now.

    This reminds me of the White Stripes message board, which I was very active on in the early 2000s. Despite his protestations to this day that he doesn’t ever use a cell phone or the Internet, we uncovered that Jack had a secret account on the board and often picked fights with people and defended himself in the third person. It only got put together when someone traced the IP and all the dates corresponded with his Latin American tour. His username was “trucker.”

  15. Rianic says:

    I’m friends with a former reality star, she’s actually still in the news from time to time, and she has alternate accounts. We laughed about it when she was doing her wedding planning.

  16. Le4Frimaire says:

    Romney is such a spineless leech. He tries to make it seem like he has upstanding principles but he’s just an opportunist. He comes out against Trump only when he think it’s safe. In 2012, when he got Trumps endorsement, was humiliating, looked like a hostage video. After 2016, after giving some lame press conference against Trump in the 11th hour, he practically groveled to be Secretary of State, being photographed having dinner with Trump. Trump just did that to publicly embarrass him, but Romney is so desperate for relevance in politics he doesn’t care if he looks weak next to Trump’s con game. Always hedging his bets and hiding for cover.

  17. Godwina says:

    Yikes. OMG public figures, including actors, authors, politicians, etc: don’t sockpuppet! You WILL be found out.