Obama Shatters Guinness World Record With Debut of @POTUS Twitter Account

The new account reached a milestone faster than ever before

President Obama shattered a Twitterverse record when his new account @POTUS got one million followers in less than five hours, according to Guinness World Records.

The Monday Twitter record beat one previously held by actor Robert Downey Jr. It took him 23 hours and 22 minutes to reach the same milestone in April 2014.

Guinness World Records notes that for his third tweet Obama bantered with former President Bill Clinton about the presidential hopes of Hillary Clinton.

Obama sent the inaugural tweet from @POTUS with his second term halfway through.

The verified account, which attracted more than 146,000 followers within 30 minutes of posting the first tweet, carries the bio "Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States."

Obama's account followed all major Chicago sports teams except one — the Cubs. 

The official @WhiteHouse account retweeted the message and posted confirmation of its own.

The tweet wasn't the first 140-character missive sent from the 44th president. The White House's existing practice was to sign tweets from the president on the @BarackObama handle with his initials, "-bo." That @BarackObama account, launched in March 2007 and with nearly 60 million followers, is run by the staff of Obama's non-profit Organizing for Action group. 

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