Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told Mike Allen in an interview for "Axios on HBO" that he uses a "secret Twitter account," which he later confirmed is named "Pierre Delecto" after Slate's Ashley Feinberg published a story connecting details from the anonymous account back to Romney.

The exchange:

ALLEN: There's some question whether you follow President Trump. Your official account follows President Trump.

ROMNEY: I have two official accounts — one is a Senate account and the other is the Mitt Romney account and those accounts are not ones I look at regularly. I do follow them, but I have an anonymous account, which is the one that I look at two or three times a day.

ALLEN: Oh, so you're a lurker?

ROMNEY: Is that what they're called? I'm embarrassed to be called a lurker. I've been called a lot of things, but being called a lurker is a new low.

Why it matters: As Delecto, Romney liked tweets critical of President Trump, who has attacked Romney on Twitter in the past. The senator also occasionally used the account to defend himself against detractors.

Background: The Atlantic's McKay Coppins published a profile on Romney on Sunday in which the senator revealed that he used a secret account to keep tabs on political conversations. After Feinberg tracked the account down, Romney confirmed to Coppins' that the Delecto account belonged to him.

Feinberg noted that the Pierre Delecto account was created in 2011, when Romney first announced his presidential candidacy, and that it first followed Taggart Romney, the senator's oldest son.

Pierre Delecto also follows Twitter user @Darlin1Patience, a private account that follows members of the Romney family, like Craig Romney and eldest Romney grandchild Allie Romney.

The account is now private.

Of note: In the interview with "Axios on HBO," Romney said he learned of Trump's decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria on Twitter "like most folks."

Go deeper: