Andrew Breitbart Receives Hero's Welcome In Newport Beach
NEWPORT BEACH (CBS) — The blogger who broke "Weinergate" has returned to Orange County as a hometown hero among his fellow conservatives.
Andrew Breitbart returned Thursday night from New York, where he took over a news conference held by Congressman Anthony Weiner, D-New York, to speak to a gathering of Republicans in Newport Beach.
Breitbart spoke to the crowd about how he was first tipped off that the congressman was conducting online sexual relationships with women from around the country and sending them explicit pictures.
"When I received that tweet out of the blue, and I clicked on it and looked on my laptop and was like," Breitbart told the crowd, pantomiming turning his laptop upside down and sideways, "what is this?"
Breitbart spoke to CBS2/KCAL9's Michele Gile about breaking the story amid Weiner's claims of being hacked.
"I'd be walking around Los Angeles again with accusations that I hacked a Congressman's office," he said. "So I felt I had vindication running through my veins. I'm like, I have to prove myself right."
Breitbart broke the story in May on his website, biggovernment.com.
"That day we had staged a series of drip, drip, drip of photographs. It started off innocuously, with him holding a sign that said, 'Me.' Then there was the one where he was sitting there with his long-haired kitty cats," Breitbart said. "And I knew that he'd go, 'uh oh, what's next?' And we thought we'd stop at the photo of the weird torso shot."
Breitbart is in possession of an X-rated photo and said he would not release it. The photo, however, has been leaked online after a secret screenshot was taken of Breitbart's phone with the photo on it.Breitbart says he regrets the photo's release.
Breitbart said partisan politics had nothing to do with his decision to expose Weiner.
"If somebody came to me with a Republican behaving in this fashion even though I'm a vowed conservative, I'd be happy to [expose them]. I don't like any of this kind of behavior," he said.
