Washington (CNN) Sen. Mitt Romney says he has been secretly using a Twitter account apparently intended to monitor political discussions on social media and to defend himself.

Asked about an account attributed to user "Pierre Delecto" by The Atlantic's McKay Coppins on Sunday night, the Utah Republican and 2012 GOP presidential nominee replied, "'C'est moi,'" or "it's me." Romney explained in an Atlantic profile that he maintains a secret Twitter account, and a Slate investigation linked the Pierre Delecto account to him.

Just spoke to @MittRomney on the phone, and asked him about Pierre Delecto. His only response: "C'est moi." Updated my story accordingly: https://t.co/kcfIopokWh — McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) October 21, 2019

The account, which was created in July 2011, has now made its messages private. Slate noted that the account replied to several Romney-related tweets and liked some others that were critical of Trump and Republicans.

In one such tweet, Slate found, Romney responded defensively to a conservative blogger at The Washington Post who said Romney's Trump strategy was "'was non-confrontation verging on spinelessness.'"

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