Buttigieg Comms Advisor Goes on a Tear Mocking Accusations of Running a Campaign Sockpuppet Account

Ken MeyerFeb 16th, 2020, 4:57 pm
 

A Nigerian fan of Pete Buttigieg told multiple news outlets that he is the one behind a Twitter account that some believed to have been secretly operated by one of the former South Bend mayor’s top staffers.

Lis Smith, senior communications adviser for the Buttigieg 2020 campaign, was suspected in the last few days of being the secret owner of the @easychinedu Twitter account. Buzzfeed notes that the account became a subject of conspiracy theories thanks to this tweet saying “Team Pete. Hey. It’s Lis. It’s Phase 4. Time to leave it all on the floor. Phone bankers, we need you.”

The assumption was that Chinedu was a sockpuppet account, or in other words, an online alias Smith used to talk up Buttigieg and secretly compliment herself. Smith tried to squish this conpisracy theory on Sunday with a sarcastic response to it:

Since her name kept trending though, Smith capitalized off of it by tweeting several rallying cries for Buttigieg and retweeting sarcastic responses to the accusations against her.

As it were, Buzzfeed got in contact with Chinedu, who has disabled the account citing harassment he received. He told the outlet that “I was just having a little fun” spoofing an email he received from the Buttigieg campaign.

“Clearly, I am not Lis Smith, that’s the whole point. I also want to apologize to Pete’s campaign and Lis for contributing unintentionally to this new controversy regarding Pete/Lis,” He continued. “My account is run 100% by me. I am not affiliated with Pete Buttigieg’s campaign. I just support Pete passionately. Many others outside the US support Pete as well.”

New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi also got in touch with Chinedu, who had this to say:

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