THE EVENING EDITION

BY MIKE HUCKABEE

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Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

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DAILY BIBLE VERSE

19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Matthew 19:19

Allegation in memo about James O’Keefe proven totally false

Perhaps you saw James O’Keefe earlier this month when he was a guest on my TBN weekend show.  As I said in introducing him, Project Veritas “does investigative journalism that exposes the elite and far left for what they really are --- and boy, do they hate it.”

We, on the other hand, are eternally grateful to him for all the truth-seeking.  We love him the way we love Elon Musk.  The reason is simple:  we are sick and tired of being deceived, over and over, by people standing behind the protective veil of their public personas, not to mention their sharp attorneys.  Most of these liars have come at us from inside the government, but now we see that many are technically outside that realm, working in tandem with those on the inside.

Unlike the left, we don’t want to live in a bubble and have our news spoon-fed to us by these people.  We want to be that fly on the wall that hears what they’re really saying in unguarded moments.  We want to know what they’re doing behind our backs, and if what they’re handing us is just a line.  On numerous occasions, James O’Keefe has let us be “there.”  Our worst suspicions about Planned Parenthood were confirmed, to name just one example.  And he’s taken heat from the ‘justice’ system to bring them to us.

It wasn’t until after his appearance on my show, specifically to talk about their blockbuster videos with a top Pfizer executive in mRNA strategy, Jordon Trishton Walker --- which mainstream media wouldn’t touch --- that Project Veritas’ board of directors announced they were placing him on a few weeks’ paid leave.  Rumors have swirled that they intend to oust him.  Here was the initial story…

https://archive.is/kRjEL#selection-1403.0-1414.0

Those in the mainstream media who have criticized O’Keefe’s methods forget that this is what investigative journalism at its best used to be.  If a news operation wanted to find out what auto repair shops were doing to hoodwink customers, for example, and which ones were too honest to do those things, they sent in an undercover reporter with a hidden camera.

The stakes could be astronomically high. Richard Bartone wrote this about the CBS news show 60 MINUTES for the Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television, 1997:

“The most explosive segments of 60 Minutes, for example, accuse companies, government agencies, or organizations of massive deceit, of harming public welfare. Correspondents, often in alliance with an ex-employee or group member, have confronted the Illinois Power Company, Audi Motors, the Worldwide Church of God, tobacco companies, Allied Chemical Corporation, the U.S. Army, adoption agencies and land development corporations. Smaller entities and individuals, such as owners of fraudulent health spas, used car dealers, or clothing manufacturers, often put faces and names on compelling images of deceit.”

“Because of these investigative segments, the series was the focus of consistent examination by the press concerning such issues as journalism ethics and integrity. 60 Minutes has been taken to task for having correspondents or representatives use false identities to generate stories, establishing sting operations for the camera, confronting the person under inquiry by surprise, and revealing new documents without prior notice to a cooperative interviewee in order to increase the shock value of the information. By raising these issues, the series focused attention on emerging techniques of broadcast journalism. But even when stories relied on more thoughtful critical analysis, they could shake the foundations of institutions and have strong and lasting effects. Morley Safer's 1993 story arguing that the contemporary art world is filled with ‘junk’ sparked more than two years of defense and response from different members of the art community.”

https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/60-minutes

That story about the ridiculousness of the art world was GREAT, by the way (and even helped us understand how Hunter Biden gets away with selling his “art”).  But sometimes, the truth hurts, and the repercussions from this type of journalism can be severe.  As Bartone also wrote, “Stark revelations by eyewitnesses have led to extensive damage and bankruptcy of companies, even to death threats.  One person, after disclosing odometer tampering in the automotive industry, had his house blown up.”

And sometimes a story is untrue or wildly exaggerated, unjustly leading to huge losses within an industry.  For example, the hysteria over alar in apples caused by overblown media reports cost the industry $100 million.

https://www.acsh.org/news/1999/02/01/an-unhappy-anniversary-the-alar-scare-ten-years-later

As Bartone wrote of 60 MINUTES, “Risks taken by the series have the potential to harm the image and credibility of CBS as well as that of the program, and such concerns have conditioned CBS and the broadcast industry to a rapid response to legal challenges.”

Which brings us back to James O’Keefe and Project Veritas.  With Big Pharma and COVID vaccines, the stakes as far as reputation and profitability could not be higher, and Pfizer struck back. That was followed by the story that O’Keefe had been placed on paid leave from Project Veritas, not over his Pfizer coverage (of course not!) but over allegations, revealed in a “leaked memo,” that he had exhibited “cruel behavior” towards employees and donors.  Do a search on “O’Keefe” and “cruel behavior,” and a bevy of left-wing stories will pop up --- from THE DAILY BEAST, NEWSWEEK, ROLLING STONE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, all the usual suspects --- that gleefully jump all over this. Nothing would make them happier than for O’Keefe to slump away in disgrace.

But go to POST MILLENNIAL, which leans right, and there’s a very different story, one that won’t get nearly as much attention. On Saturday, PV donor Dianna Remmers came forward to say the memo totally misrepresented her interactions with O’Keefe.  After being made aware of the allegations against him, she realized that one of them concerned something that had involved her. It was at a David Horowitz event in November 2021 in which O’Keefe was alleged to have been very rude to “one of his donors which happened to be me,” she said. “And that’s blown completely out of proportion.”  The two had been trying to have a conversation and take a picture while other people kept running up to him and dividing his attention, that’s all.

But the memo describes their interaction this way: “The wife [Remmers] asked James for a photo, and he very rudely and publicly turned her down.  She was humiliated to the point of tears.”

Not true, she said.  They are friends, and she supports him.  “I’m really very disappointed in the petty allegations towards him that are completely false and ridiculous,” she said.  “So I will continue to be supporting him as long as he’s with Project Veritas, because without him, Project Veritas is nothing.”

To “set the record straight,” as she said, she posted a video on Instagram refuting the claims in this memo, and Andy Ngo retweeted it.  Here’s the full story…

BREAKING: Project Veritas donor refutes claims in leaked employee memo, says interactions with founder ‘blown out of proportion’