Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald has had a rough year, and it just got worse. The veteran reporter’s Twitter feed went from being your typical center-left fare to an Alex Jones style forum for anti-Trump conspiracy mongering.
Last night, Eichenwald joined Tucker Carlson to address some of the more absurd accusations that he made about Donald Trump. The interview went from zero to ???? in about two minutes. It falls apart when Carlson makes the simple request that Eichenwald produce evidence to substantiate the crazy allegation that Donald Trump didn’t release his medical records because he was committed to a mental hospital in 1990. This is when it got weird. As Mediate reports:
Eichenwald started go explain the background behind that particular tweet, but as he kept going Carlson directly confronted him on whether Trump was in a mental hospital or not. Eichenwald objected to Carlson interrupting him, saying, “Would you like me to answer the question or not?”
At one point, he told Carlson, “You’re not fooling anybody, you’re trying to stop me from giving the answer.”
Carlson shut back, “This is a little nutty, I gotta be honest!”
Eichenwald refused to answer the very simple question posed to him by Carlson for several minutes, meeting each demand by the host that he answer the simple question with more useless background and complaining. At one point, Eichenwald whipped out a binder labeled “Tucker Carlson Falsehoods.” That was only the beginning of the weird. As the Federalist’s Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway called it:
This interview is basically just ten minutes of @kurteichenwald being handed rope and tying it around his neck. https://t.co/I1mQVtLw1w
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 16, 2016
It Took him 6 minutes to get to “Reality is not always able to give you a yes or no answer.” That is special. https://t.co/5s10egy2hA
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 16, 2016
Tucker: “Yes/no: was Trump in a mental hospital in 1990 like you said?”
Eichenwald: “Reality is not always able to give a yes or no answer.”— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 16, 2016
And at the end of the interview, out of nowhere, @kurteichenwald transmitted a message to America he “received from the CIA.” That happened.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 16, 2016
I am seven (7!) minutes into @kurteichenwald’s filibuster of a VERY simple question and I’m worried about him. https://t.co/4vrK2Dqttr
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) December 16, 2016
.@seanmdav “Tell me what the secret message from the CIA is, Kurt.”
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) December 16, 2016
Also, I 100% agree with Tucker. @kurteichenwald’s editors have a responsibility to help him get the help he needs.
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) December 16, 2016
Eichenwald’s meltdown continued on Twitter, in a post-interview storm he’s since deleted it, but an industrious Twitter user was able to save most of it:
.@kurteichenwald deleted his tweetstorm about @TuckerCarlson. I managed to screenshot most of it. pic.twitter.com/PxH79OnqWh
— John Rust (@johnrust) December 16, 2016
Eichenwald’s meltdown came one day after (now former) Politico reporter Julia Ioffe suggested President elect Donald Trump was in a sexual relationship with his own daughter, and after failed liberal reporter Keith Olbermann recorded himself wrapped in the flag sounding like Joe McCarthy.
Here’s the truth: Liberals and their allies in the mainstream media lost an election fair and square, and they’ve chosen increasingly nutty conspiracy theories over thoughtful introspection.
Expect this to get worse as the inauguration approaches.