Breitbart had Max Blumenthal (no relation) pegged.
The confrontation between Andrew Breitbart and the rabidly antisemitic Max Blumenthal, son of former Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal, occurred in 2010 at the annual Conservative Political Action (CPAC) conference.
During the encounter at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel, Breitbart aggressively confronted Blumenthal over a Salon article he wrote titled “James O’Keefe’s Race Problem.”
Breitbart labeled Blumenthal a “pathological liar” and a “despicable human being,” arguing that the piece was a guilt-by-association smear designed to discredit O’Keefe’s undercover investigations by falsely linking him to white nationalist organizers.
Indeed, Salon eventually removed the false claim that O’Keefe had “planned” the 2006 event in question. But the powerful, painful, and and demonic tactic of autopenning “conservatives are racists” everywhere has tragically stuck.
And the subsequent trajectory of Blumenthal’s career proved Breitbart correct in his aspersions.
Blumenthal’s “The Grayzone” frequently mirrors the geopolitical narratives of Moscow and Tehran while launching vitriolic critiques against the United States and its allies.
He specializes in one-sided propaganda that selectively omits Hamas/Islamic Jihad actions, distorts facts, promotes conspiracy theories, and crosses into antisemitism through Nazi analogies, “Judeo-Nazi” rhetoric, or tropes about Jewish/Israeli power.
All this culminated in the Charlie Kirk assassination smear.
Daniel Greenfield’s 2025 analysis of the “Kirk Conspiracy” argues that Max Blumenthal was the primary architect of the narrative suggesting Israeli involvement in the death of Charlie Kirk.
According to Greenfield, Blumenthal utilized a technique similar to the one Andrew Breitbart identified in 2010: taking a kernel of true information—in this case, Kirk’s increasingly public skepticism toward U.S. aid to Israel—and wrapping it in layers of speculative “intelligence” to create a specific political conclusion.
Greenfield asserts that Blumenthal didn’t just report on the theory; he “invented” its intellectual framework by laundering it through The Grayzone using anonymous “regional sources” to imply a targeted assassination by the Mossad.
“What’s the source for the Israel killed Charlie Kirk hoax….people are quoting Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, but Candace’s source for this is Max Blumenthal.”
Breitbart remains a hero to many.
On February 4, 2011, he tweeted:
“How prog-guru John Podesta isn’t household name as world class underage sex slave op cover-upperer defending unspeakable dregs escapes me.”
On March 1, 2012, Breitbart died an untimely death, of heart failure, at the age of 43.
Written with the help of AI.
Writing by Dr. Dannielle Blumenthal 