No cap, Sen. Mike Lee himself is tweeting from the @BasedMikeLee Twitter account.
The account cropped up seemingly out of nowhere towards the end of last month, posting news articles about the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry; claiming that Lee is taller than his colleague Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); and shaming the tech companies he aims to regulate as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The haters can’t handle this frickin’ smoke,” Lee said in a July 24th tweet on the account.
Quote-tweeting Turning Point USA contributor Benny Johnson that same day, Lee wrote, “This account is no cap — bussin, forreal forreal.”
The Salt Lake Tribune was the first to confirm that the account belonged to Lee on Tuesday. Lee Lonsberry, a Sen. Lee spokesperson, confirmed that it was the senator’s “personal Twitter account,” in a statement to The Verge on Wednesday.
The haters can’t handle this frickin’ smoke
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 24, 2022
Unlike “Pierre Delecto,” the name belonging to the previously revealed personal account of Lee’s Utah cohort Mitt Romney, the senator’s avatar displays an image of himself. Making no attempt to conceal his identity, the bio reads “I’m a U.S. senator from Utah.”
Before creating the “Based Mike Lee,” the senator’s office tweeted from his official US Senate account. Lawmakers are often encouraged to create separate personal social media accounts for their official office, their campaigns, and for personal use, because there are rules forbidding them from using government resources and staff to maintain personal profiles.
The authenticity of Lee’s personal account came into question after he posted a thread of tweets commenting on the FBI’s Monday search of former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago.
“As a lawyer, former federal prosecutor, and current member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have a few questions about the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago,” Lee wrote in the Tuesday thread.
wazup.