The Man Who Tweeted the Joke that 'Set Fire' to WaPo Speaks Out

Leah Barkoukis | June 08, 2022 9:15 AM

Cam Harless, the man behind the tweet that got Washington Post reporter David Weigel suspended, appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to discuss the meltdown that has ensued at the paper since Weigel’s retweet.

Harless, co-host of “The Mad Ones,” joked on June 1, “every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it’s polar or sexual.”

Weigel’s retweet was hammered by colleagues and ultimately led to him getting placed on unpaid leave, as Matt has covered extensively.

Carlson asked Harless if he knew when he wrote the joke that "he'd wreck a man's career"?

"I didn't know that, but if I did know that I probably would've done it earlier, I think," he responded.

Harless told Tucker Carlson the joke is actually old but he heard it for the first time recently from a friend and decided to tweet it on the first day of pride month.

“Why not see what happens?” he recalled, thinking it may get a couple dozen likes or so.

“I think I am at like 12,500 [likes] now,” he said. “And I never expected that I could help set fire to The Washington Post and to start a civil war.”

“I felt bad for like half a minute when I found out that he was suspended. And I don’t think anyone should be punished for re-tweeting a joke that I tweet, that’s ridiculous. But, at the same time, I am really happy that, you know, I am profoundly against wars, so when I found out that Weigel was very pro-Iraq war, I was like maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that it was this guy that got that,” Harless said.