I’ve known Andrew Breitbart for several years. This picture is of us from the 9/12/2010 tea party. I considered him a friend. Sadly, though, I didn’t get to know Andrew as well as many others were lucky enough to. I wasn’t close enough to him to do justice in explaining all the details of his life that made him a great man. However, I do have one of those details that I’d like to share.
Andrew Breitbart never turned down a request from a fan for a picture. He never blew off somebody who had a question for him or a story to tell him. He was simply too nice to do that. He was a great guy.
Everybody knows that he never shied away from a fight he thought he was on the right side of. He never feared showing his righteous indignation. That’s always been clear to everyone.
But if you ever met him in person you saw another side to him. He never dismissed anybody simply because he didn’t recognize their name or hadn’t read their work. He was open to any and every person that approached him.
I remember hanging out with Breitbart in the hall outside radio row at the AFP Defending The American Dream Summit last August talking about the video I’d shot of an occupier using her kids to blockade a door that I’d shot the night before. He was, of course and as always, ready to expose that dirty trick for the world to see (and he did help do so). However, we were also in a public hallway with lots of summit attendees walking by. Naturally many of them wanted to talk to Andrew or have their picture taken with him.
At that point I ended up becoming an impromptu camera man of sorts. After all, he was a nice guy so he always said yes and he always listened to what people had to say to him with genuine interest. It wasn’t the first time, nor the last, that I witnessed Breitbart doing that but it did give me pause and make me marvel at his nature.
A nature that was truly one of a kind. I’m not sure anybody will truly be able to replace him but I know the imprint he left on the conservative movement, his family, his friends, and even complete strangers will never disappear.
