Yes and no, it depends whether you mean verified as in "Twitter verified" or verified as in "the journalist verified this is the genuine person".
Their job is to verify who it is that they're quoting. Having a blue tick (then and now) doesn't guarantee that the twitter account is genuine, but there are other ways to check this stuff.
Or even if it was authentic, there's no way even back then to be sure if it was the person really tweeting. (ie like the Ted Cruz controversy with the p*rn account)
Their job is to verify who it is that they're quoting. Having a blue tick (then and now) doesn't guarantee that the twitter account is genuine, but there are other ways to check this stuff.