One of Pete Buttigieg’s top advisers came under fire after she was accused of running a “sock puppet” Nigerian Twitter account in support of the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s presidential campaign.
The theory unfolded over the weekend and revolved around a now-locked Twitter account, which claimed to belong to a Nigerian woman named “Chinedu.” The woman had noted in her bio that she was a “Pete Buttigieg supporter from Nigeria” who loves “wine and dancing.”
Another Twitter account run by what appears to be a Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders supporter floated a theory that the account was run by Lis Smith, a senior adviser for the Buttigieg campaign. In one of the tweets from the account, “Chinedu” said, “Team Pete. Hey. It’s Lis. It’s Phase 4. Time to leave it all on the floor. Phone bankers, we need you.”
BRUHHHHH pic.twitter.com/5nNF55IJNF
— Taryn Jay ? (@FeralHogs420) February 16, 2020
Many Twitter users quickly pounced on the idea that Smith had accidentally revealed her identity. The conspiracy quickly trended on Twitter with thousands of people tweeting about it.
Totally normal follows for a Nigerian account. (Pete was its first.) pic.twitter.com/LSfajPGyDc
— Jonathan Myerson Katz (@KatzOnEarth) February 16, 2020
An interesting thing I just discovered is that Lis Smith used to tweet “y’all” a lot, much like this account does, but stopped after December 2017. I don’t have a theory for why that would be, just putting it out there.
— ??Lagos-based #1 Bernie fan?? (@DavidKlion) February 16, 2020
Oddly, the Nigerian Pete Buttigieg superfan who recently tweeted in @lis_smith‘s voice for some reason just protected their account, so I can’t link to this tweet where they promoted an interview with Smith tweeted, so far as I can tell, by only three other accounts pic.twitter.com/XmuEIxOQeO
— Tim Marchman (@timmarchman) February 16, 2020
This reddit account linked to Lis Smith’s alleged Nigerian twitter account. They have been all-in for Pete for a few months, but before that they only ever posted about bitcoin and sockpuppet recruiting. pic.twitter.com/yYenqqz1IF
— Mt. Obey (@mtobey) February 16, 2020
I mean, this is pretty bad. pic.twitter.com/NAVbK5hvVR
— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) February 16, 2020
If there’s really a Nigerian out there who sleeps until 5 pm on Sundays and spends all their time tweeting about Mayor Pete and Lis Smith we need to get their family involved, because that’s the bleakest existence I can imagine.
— Tom Ley (@ToLey88) February 16, 2020
The senior adviser responded to the claims on Sunday, telling people to “find better conspiracies.”
“Yea guys I totally have the time to be running a sock puppet account from Nigeria,” Smith said.
Yea guys I totally have the time to be running a sock puppet account from Nigeria. Find better conspiracies! ? https://t.co/0qbTF8Oq3m
— Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith) February 16, 2020
The theory comes as Buttigieg continues to struggle connecting with black voters. Last fall, his campaign was blasted for listing endorsements from black leaders and voters who did not support him.
UPDATE: A Twitter user stepped forward to claim ownership of the account later on Sunday. Speaking with Buzzfeed News, the man behind the account, who asked for his full identity to be withheld out of doxing concerns, said, “I read the campaign email regarding Phase 4 and Lis introduced herself like that (I don’t receive campaign emails just to clarify, I just read one on twitter). I was just having a little fun with that.
“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 added. “My account is run 100% by me. I am not affiliated with Pete Buttigieg’s campaign,” he said. “I just support Pete passionately. Many others outside the US support Pete as well.”
