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Madam45for2923

(7,178 posts) Fri Jun 30, 2017, 01:23 PM Jun 2017

Scorched-Earth Journalism: How Project Veritas Ruins Lives to Promote Their Radical Agenda

Trevor LaFauci June 30, 2017
It's been nearly nine months.

Nearly nine months ago, I endured the worst day of my life. It was a day that I'll never forget due to the sheer shame and disgrace I was made to feel. I felt hopeless and helpless, knowing that my job, my career, and my life were all about to come under intense scrutiny. I was worried about my family and friends and how they would respond when they found out. I was worried about my co-workers, whom I had now put in an extremely difficult situation. I was worried about the work we were doing, which I had now seemingly jeopardized. And I was worried about my own personal safety as I was receiving numerous death threats on social media.

I was made to feel this way because of James O'Keefe and Project Veritas.

For three months, a member of O'Keefe's "citizen journalists" infiltrated the Hillary Clinton campaign in Palm Beach County, Florida. Going by the name of "Max Hunt," this embedded campaign volunteer secretly recorded me and other organizers while on the campaign trail. Project Veritas' goal was simple: to create the illusion that there was nefarious activity going on and to fire up their alt-right base with the idea that the Clinton campaign was cheating in order to win. O'Keefe sent staff to various swing states, ones that he knew Donald Trump would have to win in order to become president. This landed "Max" in Palm Beach County, the least blue of Florida's big three Democratic-leaning areas.

From mid-July through mid-October, Max would join me and other campaign volunteers out in the hot Florida sun primarily doing voter registration. We found our way to malls, concerts, tailgates, shopping centers, DMVs, schools, churches, festivals, and any other locales where large numbers of people would gather. By being legally identified as a third party organization engaged in voter registration in the state of Florida, we had an obligation to register people regardless of political affiliation and we were unable to coach them in any way. As for myself, I know I personally registered multiple Republican voters and I know that Max did as well. In fact, I specifically recall an instance when Max returned dismayed from the local shopping plaza after having registered two Republicans to which I responded, "That's okay. We register them, too."

The week of the Florida voter registration deadline was extremely chaotic. The campaign had set its highest goals to date and the last day before the deadline was expected to be an all-out blitz on voter registration. For me personally, I went to a high school in the morning, a college campus in the early afternoon, a strip mall in the late afternoon, and a shopping plaza in the evening in search of potential unregistered voters. It was at that shopping plaza where I got a call from Max, asking where I was. I told him my location and he promised to head to our campaign office to sign out voter registration forms and then would meet me there. I was excited to have one more team member to help me in our final push.

When Max arrived, I noticed a look of consternation on his face. I immediately associated this countenance with the impending voter registration deadline, but I came to find out that Max had something on his mind. He asked if he could discuss something with me and I nodded. I asked what was up and Max ended up breaking down and confessing that he had destroyed Republican voter registration forms in a fit of anger. My heart sank at this news because it was a clear violation of Florida Democratic Party policy and I knew it would have to be addressed with my superior. When Max asked if I would tell anyone right away I shook my head but told him it was very serious and it was something I would have to reflect upon before making a further decision. He nodded and looked downtrodden so I attempted to pick him up by thanking him for telling me and noting how it took courage to do what he did. I then left the shopping plaza to meet with an individual at his home to fill out a voter registration form, all while reeling from what Max had told me. While there, I received a text from Max saying he wanted to talk back at the office. This would be an ideal opportunity to have Max meet with my supervisor and tell him what he had told me. I agreed to this meeting and headed back to our campaign office.

While waiting at the office for Max, I went through the voter registration forms he had checked out for the evening. What struck me as odd was that there were no missing forms. Why would Max say he destroyed forms when he didn't? None of what happened made any sense. As I sat trying to figure this out, a gentleman came in our campaign office and asked to see me. He came to me and asked if I had a campaign volunteer named Max Hunt. I nodded. He then asked if it was Florida Democratic Party policy to destroy voter registration forms. I laughed at this wild accusation but then noticed the man was filming me with his cell phone. He identified himself as a Project Veritas employee and kept badgering me with accusations. At this point, I told him I had no comment and I asked one of our directors to escort the man out. I walked out to my car, voter registration forms in hand, and pulled out of the parking lot driving away but not knowing where I was going. I eventually pulled over two miles down the road in a dimly lit strip mall, breathing heavily and visibly shaken. I finally composed myself enough to call my director and later talked to our regional director about what had happened as well. My director assured me that nothing would come of it.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Continues... http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2017/6/29/scorched-earth-journalism-how-project-veritas-ruins-lives-to-promote-their-radical-agenda