CNN’s Toobin Rips Romney Over Pierre Delecto Account: ‘Remarkable Act of Cowardice,’ Be a ‘Big Boy’ and Criticize Publicly

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin ripped Republican Senator Mitt Romney’s “remarkable act of cowardice” for maintaining an alt Twitter account from which the senator secretly criticized the White House and other Republicans while defending his own reputation online.

Speaking with Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room, Toobin didn’t hold back in his mockery of the senator’s decidedly less than profile in political courage of hiding behind the nom de Twitter “Pierre Delecto” to take numerous shots at GOP colleagues. The Utah senator has earned merciless, bipartisan mockery for his covert criticisms.

“Well we all need to learn the term sock puppet,” Toobin explained, before tearing into Romney. “I think it is a remarkable act of cowardice on Mitt Romney’s part. What is he afraid of? He was just re-elected — elected to the Senate. He’s very popular in Utah. Why does he have to use this fake name? It is indicative of how he’s — Republicans hide from the president. But I think Senator Romney should be a big boy and criticize under his own name.”

Congressional Republicans have been stubbornly reluctant to offer any public, direct criticism of the White House over its at-times contradictory and bumbling responses to the House Democrats’ Ukraine impeachment inquiry. But on Monday evening — after being the target of derision for nearly 24 hours — Romney finally stepped out of the shadow of his alt Twitter account to say that White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s quid pro quo admission last week involving US military aid to Ukraine was “a real problem.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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