WASHINGTON — Matt Drudge, an online news pioneer and publisher of the powerful news aggregation website “The Drudge Report,” said the Clintons planted cocaine on him in return and gave him precautions, according to a former employee. He said he feared he would leave the country around the time of the election.
Joe Karl, who worked as editor of the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2014, exposed his former boss’s paranoia in a podcast interview with journalist Chris Moody, host of the magazine. “Looking for Matt Drudge” series.
“He always leaves the country on election day or during the election period, a few weeks before the election, because he was scared,” Karl recalled.
“He said he was worried that the Clintons had planted a bag of cocaine in his car parked in the parking lot there. That’s why he always takes off before and after elections. and went out of the country.”
Mr. Drudge, 57, rose from obscurity to media powerhouse in 1998 when he first reported on then-President Bill Clinton’s extramarital affair. White House intern Monica Lewinsky —This article was covered by Newsweek and ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment.
Drudge later spread mostly unflattering stories about Hillary Clinton during the 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns. That included helping her launch topics of political debate, such as the former first lady’s health issues.
“I think he was mostly serious,” Kahl, a former Washington Times reporter, said of his fear of the Clintons.
“He was the one who blew up Bill Clinton, and he had just spent several years blasting and targeting Hillary Clinton in the lead up to the 2008 election,” Karl said. said.
“So he was definitely persona non grata among the Clintonistas.”
The series, hosted by Moody, a former reporter for Yahoo, CNN and the Daily Caller, examines Drudge’s influence on American reporting over the decades and his disappearance from the public eye.
Drudge Report remains one of the largest news websites and provides users with carefully selected links.
As of January, its U.S. web traffic was roughly equal to that of The Atlantic Magazine and the Daily Beast News websites combined. According to similar web data.
“He never talked about where he was,” Karl said.
“Again, maybe because of that story about Hillary Clinton, he was really afraid that the Clintons and somebody were doing something to him.”
Spokespeople for Mr. Drudge, Hillary Clinton, and the Clinton Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Post.
Former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile, a pro-Clinton faction, responded with one word: “Huh?”
