WASHINGTON � Sen., Mitt Romney uses the alter ego "Pierre Delecto" to lurk on political debates and occasionally defend himself on Twitter.
The 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor, who's said he's not running for president again, confirmed to the Atlantic on Sunday he was behind the Twitter handle @qaws9876.
The account has since been locked.
Romney is one of President Donald Trump's favorite Republican targets on Twitter _ earlier this month he called the Utah senator "pompous" and said he "choked" in the 2012 presidential race. But the Pierre Delecto account doesn't include the president among the hundreds of other politicians, journalists and family members it follows, according to Slate, which initially identified the account as likely Romney's.
Romney is a leading Republican critic of Trump and among a few that have openly denounced the president's efforts to persuade Ukraine and China to investigate his political rivals.
Pierre Delecto has tweeted only 10 times, according to Slate, and only in reply to other tweets. One of those replies includes a tweet to Bloomberg's Steven Dennis pointing out his defense of Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and another challenging journalist Soledad O'Brien for apparently accusing him of having no moral compass.
