Opinion

Liberals owe Breitbart an apology

David Bossie President, Citizens United
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As all of Washington was preparing for the long Memorial Day weekend, Andrew Breitbart and his crack team of reporters were running down sources for a story that would eventually rock Washington and New York. Making sure they had the story correct — Congressman Anthony Weiner had sent a lewd Twitter message to a college student in Washington State — Breitbart’s team at BigGovernment.com posted the story late on the night of May 27th.

Congressman Weiner initially claimed that his Twitter account was hacked and that the hacker tweeted the lewd photo from his account. Hacking someone’s account is a serious crime, especially if the victim is a U.S. Congressman with a national security clearance. What ensued was a blitz from the irrational left-wing blogosphere accusing Breitbart and the conservative blogger Dan Wolfe (who forwarded the original Weiner tweet to Breitbart) of being the hackers.

On May 31st, Randolph Jenkins, writing for the liberal blog Daily Kos, claimed that it was Andrew Breitbart who broke the law:

Further, what Breitbart did is falsely accuse Congressman Weiner of attempting to have an affair, or at least engage in extremely inappropriate communication with a college student in Washington. That’s an attempt to jeopardize the Congressman’s marriage.

So far, there are at least two felonies attributable to Breitbart’s conduct, as well as an attempt to destroy a marriage.

Jenkins wasn’t the only one saying that Breitbart fabricated the entire Weinergate saga. On the same day that Jenkins was calling for Breitbart’s head on a spit, CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin questioned why CNN would even put Andrew Breitbart on the air, saying, “What Andrew Breitbart was insinuating about [Weiner] with young girls and stuff is outrageous,” Toobin said. “And frankly, it’s too bad that he got to say that stuff on CNN.”

Congressman Weiner soon changed his story by saying that he had not been “hacked,” but that a “prank” had been played on him. That is when the mainstream media actually started to do their jobs and ask serious questions of the Congressman. Weiner’s story simply did not add up and the press knew it. On June 1st, as the Congressman did a series of network interviews and told lie after lie, he stated that he could not say with “certitude” that the lewd picture was of him.

Then, on Monday morning, Breitbart’s team disclosed that they had in their possession even more explicit photos of Congressman Weiner in compromising positions. That afternoon, Congressman Weiner finally came clean after ten days of lying to his family, friends, and constituents. Breitbart did great investigative work in this case and drilled down to get the facts. He even did so without unveiling the name of the Washington State college student that Weiner targeted with his now-infamous tweet. It was the liberal blog Gawker that publically released the student’s name.

Congressman Weiner reluctantly apologized to Andrew Breitbart at his news conference on Monday. It is now time for those liberal bloggers and pundits who accused Breitbart of criminal activity to do the same. I doubt they will, because they purposefully walk through life with blinders on. In the meantime, I cannot wait to see what Andrew Breitbart comes out with next.

David N. Bossie is the president of Citizens United and Citizens United Productions, and the executive producer of “America at Risk.”