Has HuffPo Hired a 9-11 Truther to Cover National Security?

Politico’s Dylan Byers reports that the Huffington Post has hired former NFL receiver Donte Stallworth to cover national security issues.

That’s questionable enough on its own.

As recently as November 2013, Stallworth Truther-tweeted this:

Oops, I sent that tweet a little too early like the young lady from @BBCNews on the collapse of building 7 on 9/11…

— Donte’ Stallworth (@DonteStallworth) November 25, 2013

Stallworth now says that he is not a Truther, and HuffPo is backing him up, claiming that his Truther views are from five years ago. Even though they’re clearly far more recent than that. What did HuffPo know about this, and when did they know it?

Let’s take Mr. Stallworth at his word. He is not a Truther, now. He was one within the past year. He was one for years, in fact. Let’s enter this quote into evidence.

“NO WAY 9/11 was carried out by ‘dying’ Bin Laden, 19 men who couldn’t fly a damn kite. STILL have NO EVIDENCE Osama was connected, like Iraq,” Stallworth tweeted in 2009. Stallworth also tweeted, “Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrr @ ppl who actually believe a plane hit the pentagon on 9/11… hole woulda been ASTRONOMICALLY bigger, God bless lost lives.”

Did any of Stallworth’s Trutherism come up in the Huffington Post’s job interview with him? What in Stallworth’s career suggests that he is any way informed and responsible enough to cover foreign policy? Is it his NFL career? Is it the DUI manslaughter charge he pleaded guilty to in 2009, when he killed a 59-year-old man? Or his gullibility on the worst terrorist attack ever committed on American soil? How will a (former) Truther cover, say, the Islamic State now?

Just how does the talent search work at HuffPo? It’s hard to imagine that the actual journalists who work there are happy to have such a hire for the company.