Ex-NFL Player Hired By HuffPo To Cover National Security Says He’s No Longer A 9/11 Truther

Washington Redskins' Donte Stallworth (19) runs against the Buffalo Bills during the first quarter of an NFL football game at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/David Duprey)
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The ex-NFL player who was hired by the Huffington Post to cover national security apparently no longer believes 9/11 was an inside job.

Donte Stallworth, a former journeyman wide receiver, insisted in a series of tweets posted on Thursday that he no longer subscribes to the trutherism he conveyed on Twitter back in 2009.

In another tweet sent later in 2009 — the same year he pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter — Stallworth gave a plug to Loose Change, a film series alleging that the hijacked planes on 9/11 were actually replaced by drones.

Those tweets have come under a harsh spotlight after HuffPost announced Wednesday that Stallworth will join the site as a fellow covering national security.

On Thursday, Stallworth sought to clear the air, saying he no longer feels “the way I did in that tweet 5 years ago” and crediting the author James Bamford for his apparent change in beliefs.

Before Stallworth clarified his beliefs on Twitter, HuffPost’s Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim defended the hire.

“That doesn’t represent how he thinks today,” Grim told the media industry website Poynter. “You know, that was five years ago, and people say dumb things, but that shouldn’t define him.”

But 2009 was not the only time Stallworth dabbled in 9/11 conspiracy theories on Twitter.

Just last year, he made a reference to the collapse of World Trade Center 7, which truthers have claimed was brought down by a controlled demolition.

TPM reach out to Grim multiple times on Thursday, asking if HuffPost was aware of Stallworth’s beliefs prior to making the hire. Grim has not responded.

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