#Resistance Twitter Hero Exposed as Pro-Trump Gamer

[demmiblue]

@GuardianRover claimed to be a Delta Force commando. A little amateur intelligence work revealed he was just another guy on the internet.

In the world of #Resistance Twitter, @GuardianRover was a hero. As a former intelligence operative and Delta Force soldier, the person behind the account used a cartoon secret agent avatar and the alias “Mr. Smith” to share the kind of national security expertise that anxious Democrats crave in the tumultuous Trump era.

When he wasn’t meeting with Chinese freedom fighters, chatting up Ukrainian intel sources or working diplomatic security details, Smith tweeted wild claims on Twitter about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Maybe, he posited, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page had a tape of Trump promising to lift Russian sanctions in exchange for help with the 2016 election.

Smith regularly urged his followers to “buckle up,” hinting at some kind of momentous developments in the Russia investigation just over the horizon. He also frequently claimed it would be various Trump allies’ “time in the barrel,” promising what he called “barrel time” for the likes of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner or former Trump confidant Roger Stone (who before the election famously tweeted: “it will soon [be] the Podesta's time in the barrel”).

“Christmas clue: one person in the barrel was on the Apprentice,” Smith tweeted in December 2017.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/resistance-twitter-hero-exposed-as-pro-trump-gamer?via=twitter_page&__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true

[manor321]

1. LOL

"Smith even caught the attention of Louise Mensch..."

[demmiblue]

2. I know, right?!

Smith even caught the attention of Louise Mensch, a former member of the British parliament who has restyled herself as a leader of anti-Trump conspiracy theorists and once claimed that former White House strategist Steve Bannon could face the death penalty for espionage. Despite their shared antipathy for Trump, Mensch and Smith were soon at odds, with Mensch claiming that that Smith was actually a former CIA station chief acting as a nefarious “black hat.”

(I wish people would stop posting tweets from dubious Twitter accounts)

[Lee-Lee]

9. Yeah as I was reading I was like "I bet Mensch was all over him"

And yep, there it was.

[SidDithers]

3. Heheh...

Couple of good twitter accounts to follow, who put the screws to #TeamPillowForts and their ilk:

https://twitter.com/Fraude_1

https://twitter.com/UsVsThemRedux

Sid

[meow2u3]

4. Another good Twitter account to follow

https://twitter.com/LincolnsBible

[SkyDancer]

5. LMAO Wow

"The “BigOleUncleLeroy” screen name held one more clue. A search for the profile on the Playstation Network shows that its owner frequently plays Call of Duty—the series Smith often seemed to use as a source for his national security knowledge."

[Dr Hobbitstein]

6. So many frauds on Twitter...

And the gullible lap it up.

[Oneironaut]

7. Seriously, people - Twitter is not, and never will be a legitimate news source!!!

Just because someone claims to be a White House staffer, Delta Force soldier, NASA scientist, etc. doesn’t mean it’s true! Anyone can claim anything on Twitter.

I always cringe at these stupid “Rogue White House Staffer” Twitter accounts, because you know they’re created by some attention-craving liar looking for followers and shares. Yet, people continue to get conned by this game over and over.

[dalton99a]

8. +1

[Dr Hobbitstein]

10. +1. nt

[demmiblue]

11. I use it as a news source.

I have a separate list for exclusively legitimate news sources (local media, NYT, WaPo, Reuters, BBC etc.).

I do get your meaning, though, about random Twitter accounts. They have a following here, to be sure (one of the more popular ones used to be a Justin Bieber fan account that transformed into a political account... his brother was hawking the Jonas Brothers. Lol!).

[demmiblue]

12. ...