Eric Fehrnstrom, the adviser to Scott Brown and Mitt Romney under fire from Democrats today, admitted to the Boston Globe that he is in fact the man behind the anonymous Twitter feed that’s been mocking Democratic Senate candidate Alan Khazei.
But despite the calls from Khazei camp for an apology, Fehrnstrom is showing no remorse.
“Sometimes we take our politics too seriously and this was my way of lightening things up,” he told the paper. “As they say in politics, if you can’t stand the tweet, get out of the kitchen.”
Earlier Wednesday, Team Khazei called on Fehrnstrom’s boss, Sen. Scott Brown, to condemn the anonymous negative campaigning.
“Sen. Brown should denounce these tactics, immediately close the fake Twitter account and apologize to the citizens of Massachusetts,” Khazei Chief of Staff Emily Cherniack said in a statement.
Brown’s campaign has yet to weigh in on the controversy. Nor has Fehrnstrom’s other boss, Romney.
Globe columnist Rob Anderson writes that Fehrnstrom’s outing as the man behind the anonymous tweets could be a problem for Romney.
“If Mitt Romney is elected President, Eric Fehrnstrom will likely continue his role as one of Romney’s closest aides,” Anderson wrote. “He would be the successor to Karl Rove and David Axelrod in the West Wing of the White House. It would be quite disconcerting if the President was relying on the advice of someone dumb enough to do something like setting up a fake Twitter account.”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.