Andrew Breitbart says he saved Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) from an inevitable extortion scandal when he helped publicize the graphic tweet that led to Weiner’s downfall.
Breitbart gleefully took partial credit for Weiner’s resignation in his speech at the RightOnline conference in Minneapolis this weekend. In an impromptu interview, Breitbart says that he holds all sex scandal-plagued politicians in the same negative light, regardless of party.
At the bar in the Hilton hosting RightOnline, an attendee at the Netroots Nation convention — which was held a few blocks away — caught up with Breitbart and asked him what should happen to Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) who was caught up in a sex scandal of his own but remains in Congress anyway.
Breitbart said he doesn’t have much regard for Vitter, and suggested that he, too, could possibly been compromised thanks to his extramarital predilections.
“I tend to think all these guys who behave this way are putting themselves in a position to be blackmailed,” Breitbart said.
I’m not a fan of Ensign. I’m not a fan of Mark Sanford. I’m not a fan of Mark Foley. Guys who put themselves in these positions - if they’re Republicans or Democrats - I don’t like them. And I never bought that ‘it’s just about the sex’ European argument. If you want to go into Hollywood and you want to do heroin and you want to hump everyone known in humankind, then God bless you but when you put yourself in an elected position and you do these things that you don’t want people to find out about then you do it, you’re gonna be extorted and be blackmailed.
“I think Weiner is the most manifestly blackmailable person I’ve ever seen in my life,” Breitbart said. “He was going to fight to the point of absurdity to keep that job.”
“if it were a stripper hooker or black jack dealer, and she said hey I’ve got a problem and I need you to vote this way instead of that way, You think he would have said no because he has integrity?” Breitbart said.
“So I just don’t like him. I don’t like any of them,” he added. “I don’t like Republicans or Democrats that behave this way with the public trust. Including Vitter.”
Check out the video:
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.
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