A Death That Still Echoes
On March 1, 2012, the political world was rocked by the sudden death of conservative firebrand Andrew Breitbart. At just 43 years old, the founder of Breitbart News collapsed while walking near his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. The official cause of death was heart failure. But nearly 13 years later, questions remain—lingering in conservative circles and investigative communities—about whether Breitbart’s demise was truly natural… or something far more sinister.
One day before his death, Breitbart had told a packed audience at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), “Wait ‘til they see what happens March first.” He was referring to video footage he claimed would expose a shocking truth: that Barack Obama had not been properly vetted by the media and had close ties to radical ideologies, some of which, Breitbart claimed, the American public had never seen.
Breitbart never released the video. He never even made it to sunrise.
Breitbart’s Threat to the Establishment
Andrew Breitbart had made powerful enemies. As a media innovator and bomb-throwing conservative pundit, he’d helped bring down ACORN, exposed shady government officials, and taken aim at what he called the “Democrat-media complex.” But it was his next target—Barack Obama—that may have sealed his fate.
In early 2012, Breitbart began openly teasing unreleased videos from Obama’s college days at Harvard. These videos, he claimed, would draw damning connections between the then-President and figures associated with radical leftist movements, including Derrick Bell, a founder of Critical Race Theory.
Breitbart told one reporter weeks before his death:
“I’ve got video. This election we’re going to vet him. I’ve got college footage of Obama with radicals. It will change this election. It will change everything.”
Many now ask: Was that threat enough to make him a target?
The Suspicious Setting: Breitbart’s Final Walk
Breitbart died on a quiet Brentwood street just after midnight. Several curious details emerged:
-
Witnesses claimed he had been out walking and suddenly collapsed, clutching his chest.
-
No one close to him reported any serious heart condition, though he did have a history of high blood pressure.
-
A man named Christopher Lasseter said he saw Breitbart drop “like a sack of bricks” and that a large SUV pulled up soon after.
-
Breitbart was reportedly seen dining at the Brentwood Restaurant hours before—where some allege he may have been poisoned.
To this day, no security footage has been made public from the area surrounding the sidewalk or the restaurant.
And then came another twist.
Coroner’s Death Raises Alarms
Dr. Michael Cormier, the coroner technician who handled Breitbart’s autopsy, died mysteriously just weeks later from suspected arsenic poisoning.
Let that sink in.
The man who examined Breitbart’s body—who could verify whether the death was natural or not—was himself killed under highly suspicious circumstances. LAPD and the LA County Department of Health opened a criminal investigation, but to date, no one has been arrested for Cormier’s death.
Even ABC News reported in April 2012 that authorities were investigating whether the technician was “poisoned by arsenic.”
Poison at the Corner? Theories of Tainted Food and Targeted Hits
The idea that Breitbart was poisoned has gained traction in alternative investigative circles. Some independent researchers point to potential bio-agents or slow-acting toxins, especially if administered through a meal or drink.
Key questions include:
-
Why was no toxicology screen released publicly?
-
Why was there a delay in the autopsy findings?
-
What connection did Dr. Michael Cormier have to classified or sensitive medical reviews?
-
Why was there virtually no mainstream media investigation into the death of the coroner—when it coincided with the autopsy of one of the most polarizing political figures in America?
It is worth noting that Breitbart had recently hired a private security team due to increased death threats stemming from his reporting.
The Teased Obama Bombshell
At the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Andrew Breitbart electrified the crowd with a promise that shook Washington insiders. He claimed to possess video footage from Barack Obama’s college years that would expose how the 44th president had deep ideological ties to radical left-wing figures—connections that, in Breitbart’s view, the media had either ignored or deliberately concealed during the 2008 election.
Breitbart’s core argument was that mainstream media outlets failed America by refusing to vet Obama as they would a Republican candidate. According to Breitbart, this omission wasn’t accidental—it was part of a deliberate narrative shaping effort by a sympathetic press corps. He accused outlets like The New York Times, Washington Post, and major networks of turning a blind eye to what he called Obama’s radical academic influences and social circles, particularly during his time at Occidental College, Columbia University, and Harvard Law.
Specifically, Breitbart pointed to Obama’s relationship with:
-
Derrick Bell, a Harvard Law professor known as the father of Critical Race Theory, whose ideas posit that U.S. legal institutions are inherently racist and that racial power structures must be dismantled.
-
Bill Ayers, a co-founder of the radical leftist Weather Underground, who later became a professor of education and was linked to Obama through nonprofit boards and political circles in Chicago.
-
Frank Marshall Davis, a poet and journalist with documented ties to the Communist Party USA, who mentored Obama during his teenage years in Hawaii, according to Obama’s own memoir Dreams from My Father.
Breitbart promised that the footage would “show you who the real Barack Obama is”, painting a picture of a man nurtured in circles of radical activism and identity-based ideology—far from the post-partisan image many voters were sold in 2008.
He declared:
“This election we’re going to vet him. I’ve got college footage of Obama with radicals. It will change this election. It will change everything.”
The term “vet” was key. Breitbart believed the Obama campaign and its allies in the press had constructed a sanitized version of the candidate’s background—one that left out the ideological forces that shaped his worldview. He felt this had deprived the American public of the opportunity to make a fully informed decision.
Shortly after Breitbart’s death, a single video was released by his media team. Instead of shocking content, it showed a young Obama hugging Derrick Bell at a Harvard Law rally. While important, it did not rise to the level of political dynamite Breitbart had forecast.
This led many—both allies and skeptics—to ask a chilling question:
“Was that really all he had… or did something more damaging simply disappear?”
The Pattern: Others Who Got Too Close
Andrew Breitbart is not the only person who’s died under mysterious circumstances after threatening to expose high-level political corruption:
-
Michael Hastings, the investigative journalist who brought down General Stanley McChrystal, died in a fiery car crash in 2013 after claiming the FBI was tracking him.
-
Seth Rich, a DNC staffer believed by some to be a whistleblower, was murdered in 2016 under murky circumstances, with no valuables taken.
While none of these deaths have been officially linked to foul play, the pattern of threats followed by sudden deaths raises serious concerns for anyone probing too close to power.
Conclusion: Was Breitbart Silenced?
Thirteen years later, the full truth about Andrew Breitbart’s death remains hidden in the shadows. Was he a victim of natural causes—as the official story claims—or a man silenced before he could shift the political tide?
What is clear is this: Breitbart was on a mission to expose what he saw as media malpractice and political deception. He believed the American public had been lied to about the true identity and affiliations of Barack Obama.
The videos he promised never surfaced.
The coroner who examined his body was killed.
And the media—aside from a few brief headlines—moved on.
Final Thoughts from Craig Bushon:
“Andrew Breitbart believed in sunlight, not silence. He risked everything to break the media matrix and expose corruption. The fact that he died suddenly—just before releasing what he called game-changing evidence—deserves more than a footnote. It deserves a full reckoning. Until we know what really happened to him and the missing tapes, we must keep asking the hard questions, because that’s what real journalism does.”
