In a bizarre spectacle, Andrew Breitbart temporarily took over the press conference in New York that was supposed to feature Rep. Anthony Weiner Monday, declaring that everything he’s posted on his conservative Web site BigGovernment.com has proven to be true.
Weiner was supposed to come to the microphones at 4 p.m. but Breitbart commandeered the podium instead, criticizing the media’s coverage of the Weiner scandal and saying he had been “vindicated” even before the congressman spoke.
He had heard about the press conference when his cell phone started buzzing, and strolled over from his hotel nearby. His phone rang, and he took the call. “Hey, I’m here right now, this is crazy,” he said to the caller.
Breitbart went unnoticed by the huge media throng until a POLITICO and New York Observer reporter approached him, and tweeted about it. Word spread that he was on the premises, and the cameramen quickly rushed over, surrounding him by a side door.
“Andrew, would you go to the podium?” WCBS reporter Marcia Kramer, who just days earlier was threatened with arrest when she staked out Weiner’s congressional office in Washington, asked.
After a few requests, he agreed. Breitbart questioned whether Weiner was paying to rent the ballroom, and said it was perhaps not wrong to take the podium in that case. But he went up anyway.
“I am completely here by happenstance,” Breitbart said, before turning quickly to the matter at hand.
Weiner faced several questions about whether he had any apologies to make to the blogger.
The congressman resisted the first few times.
“I’m right here,” Breitbart called out from the sidelines. Soon after, Weiner said “I apologize to Andrew Breitbart.”