If you’ve seen a lot of “I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch” tweets today, you’re not alone. Tweets expressing that sentiment have been spreading like wildfire, but that’s where the nation’s media firefighters come into play. Many are determined to get to the bottom of it:

The "I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch" tweet that's flying looks coordinated, but authentic. Propelled by far right folks Cassandra Fairbanks, Jack Posobiec (who calls himself "Botnet Warlord" b/c of this kind of thing) & someone called catturd2. pic.twitter.com/N9RJW0KHzU — Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) November 15, 2019

As @broderick pointed out, there's a coordinated and inauthentic Twitter campaign going on around today's public hearing. Hundreds of accounts are pushing this phrase: I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch This seems to have been the first account ?? https://t.co/hC7ls1fBLw — Emmanuelle Saliba ? (@_esaliba) November 15, 2019

Tweeted too fast… should have said *possibly inauthentic. This looks coordinated but authentic. Over to @BrandyZadrozny who has more on how this is spreading: https://t.co/ZsWF2Bmyio https://t.co/VdTv7O874u — Emmanuelle Saliba ? (@_esaliba) November 15, 2019

Don Trump Jr. on Twitter about 30 minutes ago: "America hired @realDonaldTrump to fire people like the first three witnesses we’ve seen. Career government bureaucrats and nothing more." https://t.co/tGS1y0xHib https://t.co/AMB6NlkJ0s — Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) November 15, 2019

Can confirm that the phrase "I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch" currently being spread by bots on Twitter DID NOT first appear on 4chan. The phrase was first posted to 4chan at 10:58am EST. By that point it had already been tweeted hundreds of times already. pic.twitter.com/r3W80KbRMg — Ryan Broderick (@broderick) November 15, 2019

Sometimes tweets just catch on because people agree with what’s being said, but don’t tell the media:

Buzzfeed blogger @broderick is now spreading a kook conspiracy theory that the phrase "I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch." is being tweeted by bots without evidence — Botnet Warlord Poso (@JackPosobiec) November 15, 2019

Do you have a comment about the extremely suspicious rate of activity around the phrase? Do you believe that all 7,320 tweets containing it in the first hour are authentic? — Ryan Broderick (@broderick) November 15, 2019

Does the media get that curious when tweet verbiage starts to go viral on the Left?

What's suspicious about tweeting the sentiment "I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch"? Many people agree with it. https://t.co/QHmdf62BBk — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) November 15, 2019

The more you tweet the phrase "I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch" the more upset journalists become. What a shame. pic.twitter.com/IXetZFqLua — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) November 15, 2019

It sure seems that way.

When a turd triggers an NBC reporter ? ??? https://t.co/z6mmSvAqwE — Catturd (@catturd2) November 15, 2019

We saw it, we liked it. It's called a trend. — brenda e. (@BrendaAnnEstep) November 15, 2019

Brandy, have you figured out why that tweet is spreading so fast? Why is it so popular? I can tell you easily. It is true! https://t.co/ICS6duvO2H — David Bird (@ScienceJerk1) November 15, 2019

And because of journalists making a big deal out of “I hired Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch” guess what’s happening. Well done, media firefighters!