his death was con firld by joel pollack who said he was at that time hospital at the time. andrew breitbart was an outspoken critic of the mainstream media, behind the investigations to led to the resignations of former congressman anthony weiner and former agricultural commissioner sherry sherrod. andrew breitbart was 43 years old. >> bob, at some point i'm going to have to ask you to chair because i have to go back to the floor. >> [ inaudible ]. >> well, it's going to be later. >> this hearing will come to order. thank you all. i apologize for being a moment late. i was over on the floor and a little delayed there. i'll have to go back there at some point in time. senator casey will chair at the point at which i will have to do that. we appreciate everybody coming here to discuss the on going situation in syria. as we all know, syria sits in the heart of the middle east straddling its ethnic and sectarian fault lines. all of the region's important powers have a direct interest in what happens in syria as do nonstate actors like hezbollah, hamas and others. al qaeda throu

i'm sure there will be more news from joel pollack, the counsel at breitbart.sad loss today. >> i know this has been hard for you, because you were so close. what are the things you are going to remember? >> he inspired me in a lot of ways. he inspired me to look at journalism through new eyes. he inspired a lot of people like me who got through with new media, he inspired people to get out in politics and fight. i don't mean wivitriolic speechr anything, but there's battles that they engaged with the right as well, with republicans, he stood for truth. he was a very accessible person. he was a very fantastic speaker. i will say this, i never understood how he did this, he could go on stage with no notes at all, whatsoever, no idea of what he was going to speak about. he would give one of the greatest speeches, a 40-minute speech with nothing. just right there on the spot ad-lib. he was very gifted in that way and an inspirational figure. and a figurehead of conservative politics a figurehead of the tea party movement and a great void has been left in our movem