Hear the radio version of this story.
One of the former leaders of the Tennessee Republican Party says he and other top officials tried to stop an unofficial Twitter account that's being linked to Russian trolls.
Former Tennessee Republican Party executive director Brent Leatherwood condemns the account as "anti-American."
The now-suspended TEN_GOP account grew to more than 100,000 followers. NewsChannel5, citing a report from independent media in Russia, says it may have been the most popular fake-news feed on Twitter.
Its posts were frequently confused with the state party's official account, TNGOP. But TEN_GOP often trafficked in conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton and Muslims. It was sometimes retweeted by national figures like the pro-Trump commentator Ann Coulter and local politicians like Columbia Representative Sheila Butt.
Leatherwood says state Republicans asked Twitter "multiple times" to shut down TEN_GOP, but the company didn't do so until this year — months after the election was settled.
In a series of tweets from his personal account, Leatherwood described the revelations about the account's possible origins as "amazing" to learn about, but added it doesn't matter whether they were actually in Russia.
"It should be alarming to all Americans to see how easily our differences can be weaponized & exploited," he wrote.
Leatherwood urged people to bridge their differences over politics.
Whether it was Russians or not, it should be alarming to all Americans to see how easily our differences can be weaponized & exploited.— Brent Leatherwood (@LeatherwoodTN) October 18, 2017
Copyright 2017 WPLN News