Kurt Eichenwald Keeps At It

Kurt Eichenwald accused Trump, with fair specificity and no signalling of ironic intent, of having gone to a mental asylum in 1990 due to erratic behavior brought on by "amphetamine derivatives."

He's now explaining this was... "a joke."

Newsweek reporter Kurt Eichenwald said Tuesday his baseless allegation that President-elect Donald Trump was once institutionalized in a mental hospital was actually part of a series of jokes and intended to be a "signal to a source" to talk with him.

Eichenwald made the comments on "Good Morning America," as host George Stephanopoulos asked him about the September tweet in which he said, without evidence, he believed "Trump was institutionalized in a mental hospital for a nervous breakdown in 1990."

"Any regrets about that?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"There's a long story behind it," Eichenwald said after some brief laughter. "When you go through the full lead up to that tweet -- there was a reporting purpose for that tweet going out, which is more than you are going to want to hear about."

"I was making fun of Fox News and the rest, who were doing 'Hillary has seizures,' 'Hillary has Multiple sclerosis,' 'Hillary has Parkinson's,' you know, let's go to Dr. Oz," he continued, referring to a point in the election during which both candidates' health was under the microscope.

"So I was writing a series of jokes leading up to that with the intent of sending that tweet, which was a signal to a source to talk to me," Eichenwald concluded.

The bizarre claim went unchallenged by Stephanopoulos, who moved on to another topic.

Newsweek, Business Insider says, has not responded with comment on their employee's apparently casual slander for purposes of "jokes" and "signalling" to a source to talk to him.

Below, a clip of Eichenwald's appearance with the docile, no-follow-up questions George Stephanopolous, and Eichenwald's newest jihads -- making threats of outings against people who merely didn't object strenuously enough to his alleged assault-by-.gif.

posted by Ace at 01:00 PM

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