James Clapper: Breitbart And ‘The Russians’ Attacked Hillary With ‘Screaming Headlines’

NEW YORK — Breitbart News and “the Russians” worked overtime with “screaming headlines” to attack Hillary Clinton over concerns about the former presidential candidate’s health, according to James Clapper, who served as director of National Intelligence under the Obama administration.

Clapper further claimed without offering evidence that Breitbart News “was known for its virulent attacks on Clinton and for promoting conspiracy theories.”

He made the wild assertions, which seemingly attempted to conflate Breitbart with Russia, in his recently released book, titled Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence.

Clapper addressed Clinton’s infamous collapse at the 9/11 memorial ceremony on September 11, 2016. A video surfaced of Clinton appearing to stumble off a curb and then being lifted off her feet and loaded into a van by her Secret Service detail.

Apparently minimizing legitimate concerns about Clinton’s health, Clapper wrote that “the Russians — and every other troll on the internet — dissected the video as if it were as momentous as the Zapruder film of President Kennedy’s assassination, and refused to accept the campaign’s statement a few hours later that she was ‘severely dehydrated.’”

Clapper continued, referring to Breitbart News:

The Russians and Breitbart filled the gap with screaming headlines — Why has the Clinton campaign been silent for hours? When Clinton did reappear later that day, they claimed that she was actually in a coma, and the person appearing in public was a body double.

The day Clinton collapsed, Breitbart News ran a livewire featuring stories from other media outlets and social media content from reporters.

It is not clear whether Clapper was still referring to Breitbart News when he wrote that “they claimed that she was actually in a coma” and was using a body double. Breitbart News did not make either claim.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

Written with additional research by Joshua Klein.