Last Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the death of legendary conservative icon Andrew Breitbart. At 43 years old, his passing was sudden, having collapsed while walking in Brentwood, California, and pronounced dead a few hours later at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Andrew’s autopsy showed he had died of heart failure.
Breitbart was one of the largest conservative icons of our generation, and on a personal note, one of my major inspirations for becoming interested in politics when I was in high school. His career started in 1995 when he met Matt Drudge, the owner of The Drudge Report. He was so inspired by Drudge that he started working with other sites and conservative media outlets, eventually leading to his signature creation, Breitbart.com.
Andrew was a brilliant political analyst as well. Once, when he was asked about a rumored presidential run by current-President Donald Trump in 2012, he bluntly stated on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor he did not consider Trump a conservative.
“Of course he’s not a conservative. He was for Nancy Pelosi before he was against Nancy Pelosi,” Andrew stated, showing Trump has a tendency to flip-flop on positions, a criticism that many still say about Trump.
Ironically, Andrew’s legacy may be what brought Trump to the White House five years later.
In June 2011, Andrew broke the story that New York Democrat Congressman Anthony Weiner was tweeting women revealing photos of himself. This scandal, known as “Weinergate,” caused Weiner to resign in disgrace. But, even after his death six months later, Andrew’s findings played a major role in causing Hillary Clinton to lose the 2016 election. Weiner was caught sexting a 15-year-old girl whom he allegedly had a months-long relationship with, which caused Weiner and his wife, Huma Abedin, to separate.
Interestingly, Abedin was one of Hillary Clinton’s top advisors and confidants. When Weiner’s scandal broke last year, the NYPD and the FBI seized all devices owned by Weiner and Abedin to begin their investigation. But when law enforcement was searching Weiner’s computer in October of last year, they found much more than they were looking for— emails related to the closed investigation into Clinton’s private email server, according to The New York Times. This caused the FBI to reopen the investigation of Clinton, and likely cost her the presidential election.
“Perhaps, finally, justice will be done,” Trump said at a campaign rally in New Hampshire.
And justice was done. Hillary lost the trust of the American people, and the election. Even with his reservations he had about Trump during his lifetime, it’s hard to argue Andrew wouldn’t be proud.
To Andrew Breitbart: In commemoration of your passing, thank you for being the true conservative stalwart you were. Thank you for opening many of our eyes to Washington corruption. And finally, thank you for bringing down the Clintons.
