Most of our money. Explore our nations past on American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3. Next we hear from founder and president of project veritas. James okeefe. Talking about how he started his organization that specializes in hidden camera investigations. This is 30 minutes. [ applause ] thank you very much. Its great to be here. And i never thought id be standing here ten years ago. And im going to tell you a story thats pretty unbelievable. As you can see, project veritas, be brave, do something is our motto. We believe in citizen empowerment. We believe in equipping citizen was hidden cameras blowing the whistle on government institutions. As you can see ten years ago i met a young woman on facebook. Sent me a message out of no where. And she said have you ever thought about doing some of your undercover work into acorn. I didnt know what that was. I had to youtube it and videos of them busting down doors of foreclosed homes. The young woman, never met her before. Sent me a series of messaging saying what if you went in and said you were a prostitute . S in a crazy idea, right. But i thought it was a good idea. You would test whether or not acorn would be willing to break the law . Would they be willing to help the prostitution business with Government Funds . I asked her, would you be willing to play the role of the prostitute . I said it might be good to have a pimp in the scenario. And hanna giles, the young woman i never met before said yes i would like to do it. I then asked my grandmother who i was living with at the time, do you have a fur coat that i could wear for this thing . And my grandmother said i dont know whats wrong with you or whats going on. But she put on my bed, because i was living with my grandparents at the time. She put on my bed a chinchilla shawl coat and hanna was dressed like that. I was dressed like this. [ laughter ]. And there we were two kids from the cast of High School Musical three with a video camera and the grandmothers chinchilla coat. No organization, no money no donors nothing but a dream to do the work the media was not willing to do. We were so upset, frustrated contemptuous of the press, which had scooped which had spiked stories on acorn. And we walked into offices across the United States. She wore the pimp fur hon on herself betalked to the workers nervous and scared but we went in undercover and caught the workers telling us these things. Telling us unbelievable things about how to disguise the prostitution business, about how to claim your youre not a prostitute but a performing artist. There is a code for it okay. A code for prostitution. You might have to name it something else. Performing independent artist uktd be that. Your business is a performing artist. Performing artist. Which you are. Okay so youre not lying. Stop saying prostitute. At this point, im thinking what more could i say . So im sitting behind the desk trying to improvise a fraudulent scheme and we know we have 13 underage prostitutes we shipped into the United States illegally and want to profit off them. Maybe that will be the line that acorn thats too far for them to go. But nothing seems to shock these people. There is going to be 13 El Salvadoran girls coming into the house very young we dont want them on the books. Please tell me 13 underage drinking sex slaves is the line. Use them as a dependent. Okay. You could use them as a dependent. Because they live in your house. How [ bleep ]ing kidding me . I had nothing i had nothing i stayed up all night editing the tapes. The story blew up the picture of me the morning it groek broke. My grandfather provided the hat i wore into the videos. But we kept releasing more tapes. And i had met this guy Andrew Breitbart. And andrew said to me dsh andrew said, you know, theyre going to say its isolated incident. And he said but you have all the tapes. So its actually going to embarrass the New York Times. He said youre going to embarrass the New York Times. I said why. He said when its all said and done, the New York Times is going to apologize to in re readers process. Okay beal see what happens. We released the second tape in washington, d. C. Girlfriend is a prostitute. Okay. And i dont know. I kind of figured that. Im using the money she is getting you know what i mean. With the police you dont know where its coming from were looking out for you. Okay thats deep. By the way, the negotiating post put a big story. Put it on the cover two days in a row. We went to new york they told to us bury the illicit proceeds in a tin cane. Bury this. A tin i put the money in a tin. In a tin and push it in the earth there. Put the grass over. We were beside ourselves. This story was big. It blew up. And extraordinary an extraordinary series of events just as Andrew Breitbart predicted, official washington responded, even before any reporters did. The house of representatives voted in 2009 a democratically controlled house and senate, the vote 345 to 75, senate voted to defund acorn 837. A sphere of consensus unheard of. Im not sure the republicans can do that. This happened and president obama even signed the legislation defunding acorn. What i know is is that what i saw on that video was certainly inappropriate. Inappropriate he said. And then something really extraordinary happened. The New York Times on september 26th, 2009 apologized to their readers just as Andrew Breitbart predicted. Clarke hoyt om budsman for the New York Times said the times needs to be alert to these things or wind up looking clueless or worse, partisan itself. The apology titled tuning in too late. Yet, you think . I dont know whats worse what the people did or what the media is doing. Project veritas was born. And 100 investigations later, fast forward six years, project veritas breaks maybe the story the biggest story of them all in the 2016 election with Hillary Clinton versus donald trump we had sent undercover agents into the Hillary Clinton campaign and caught these individuals in inthe citing violence at trump rallies forcing Anderson Cooper to ac floj it he got video emerging of a group of pro clinton appraises operatives stirring up trouble and rally process at project brain child of james okeefe with a less than stellar reputation for accuracy. They cant help themselves. They just they got to get the little dig in, right . Where is is the lie . Where is the edit . Name the lie. We actually did shall did shall we dont report anything unless you can see the hear the person and see the lips moving. The Mainstream Press uses aanonymous sources asking you to trust them when we have no reason to trust them. Bob woodward, the supposed legend he quotes people anonymously who are quoting other people as hearsay and puts that in quotes. We cant do that. You look at the table what they did and said. This is not anonymously sourced allegations. These are people who worked in and around hillarys campaign in their own words describing what they do. Im sorry this is so graphic but this is who the people really are. This doesnt matter what the fricken legal and ethics people say. We need to win this mother [ bleep ]. If you are there and protesting do the actions you will be attacked. Thats what we. Thats correct. Okay. This is engagement. Sometimes the crazy as bite and sometimes they dont bite. Hillary of aware of the work you guys do i hope. The campaign is fully. They tell you whats going on. Its the chain of command. Dnc pb partners democracy. The full group goes and zuts the [ bleep ] plan. We have mentally ill people we pay to do [ bleep ]. Make no mistake. The last 20 years. I paid off a few homeless guys to do some crazy stuff. S in scott foegle who was fired by the campaign. One of the people that scott fovel says was doing this he clearly remembers to a woman named shirl teeter a, a 69yearold sufferer of co p. D. Attending rally in north carolina. Scott fovel claims credit says the elderly woman was one of his bird doggers, the people he says inciting violence at the trump rally. One of our activity activists. She was one of ever your active. Trained up to bird dog. Trained up to bird dog. We quote scott fovel publish the video leading to an important thing. Publish the story big story mention at the debates between hillary and trump front page of the New York Times. And then we get sued by the elderly lady who sues us for defamation. I quoted him you saw him a moment ago. He says he you i just quoted hildeman why is she suing me why not him . Its newsworthy when a himgt operative saps that this person does this at the rally. Thats tell you a brief story about what happened. Because this is fascinating. The elderly woman teeter sues in north carolina. Happening in asheville, the trial over lawsuit against a rightwing known for using disguises and hidden cameras to uncover bias and corruption. This elderly woman is suing veritas who claims she was liabled produced by founder james okeefe . Shirley teeter says the Group Release add video a month after the assault she says that video led to online threats made her fear for her safety. This is one of many lawsuits they throw at us and they have used this as evidence that were discredited but we get sued but i want to take you on a journey through what happens in one of the lawsuit. This is the individual, the plaintiff sympathetic plaintiff with an oxygen tank, goes to court. They had their sympathetic plaintiffs six or seven lawyers put us us through depositions. Our reporters through depositions, a uncomfortable experience. Most journalist dont disclose sources and methods and were forced to. We didnt have seven lawyers i dont know who was funding the lawyers we had one or two lawyers but they had their sympathetic plaintiff i i had our sympathy card as well because justice is blind i got an attorney who was blind. And in the courtroom we got to court. The plaintiff rests their case. A federal jury trial. We quoted scott fofvel the judges judge says hold up before the verdict process if citizens in the media are handcuffed by a fear of liability thats debts detrimental to political discourse, to society, the federal judge said its debted rimtle to fundamental freed freedoms. I cant let this go to jury. These are fundamental principles they quoted hildeman accurate what you sue him because james okeefe didnt ask follow up questions . And the judge also said this when he put his gavel down and dismissed the case in stunning fashion. He said, if you appeal this to the Fourth Circuit he says i hesitate to think where were headed as a country. If i have gotten this wrong and the Fourth Circuit says that this is not what the law is, i hesitate to think where the First Amendment is going in this country. And we walked out of the courtroom and would you believe it, the project veritas has won every single lawsuit these people have thrown against us. [ applause ] every single one. [ applause ] why in . They said why dont you just give this person 10,000, 50,000 and i sat in the meetings and i said so help me god i will not give you one penny. We had to spend 700,000. And the federal judge even said when this thing was dismissed he made this extraordinary statement. He said wait a second. If cbs news, the introducee said 60 minutes guess what the federal judge brought up mike wallace in this case. He said this. I realize mike wallace is dead. But i think about in terms of, well, if mike wallace did that, could someone have sued him . How quickly do you think that case would be thrown out of court . It just seems to me that sort of standard for any type of journalist is one that ee vis rates the First Amendment. Doesnt it. Ee vis rates the First Amendment. And all the people, politico, the hill, the New York Times, that said, okeefe is getting sued project veritas none of them none of them printed any follow up stories about the verdicts in any of the 7 lawsuits. Not a word. And thats when it dawned upon me of course its been dawning upon me my whole life. When i walked out of the courtroom it down dawned upon me that our press is deeply, deeply corrupt. I mean really corrupt. I mean [ applause ] and they know that. And they know that. It doesnt mean that theyre bad journalists or even bad people. Theyre part of an industrial system of production that as walter litman said a hundred years ago. Manufacturers consent it isnt about the publics right to know. Its about at best money, at worst advocacy, propaganda, its toxic. And they think that its anathema to the First Amendment to be investigated. I say its 100 consistent with the First Amendment to investigate the press. [ applause ] ive seen things through my young life that shock me. A Washington Post reporter publishing this is a direct quote, quote there is no evidence that he did not say the things attributed to him. I mean, what the heck is that . What type of contrted i get sued for quoting someone accurate jt and they publish that. We have had 300 retracks project veritas. They said they with man must to black beam trey tracted that acorn videos were false. Retracted that on page a 2. Executive marty barron wasnt about that in sometimes they retract their own headlines. And that is why we investigate the press. We went first of all two years ago just walked up to one individual, you know who van jones is on the street. Asked a basic question. Is this russia story for real . Hey man we met in in palm strings a few years back. You gooed. How you doing what do you think is going to happen this week . I mean with the russia thing . The thing is a big nothing burger. Just a big nothing burger. Why dont they say this publicly . Why do they only say it privately . There is a gap between how people behave in public and operative. And you know then cnn does their thing, the video is not real. This guy is a hoaxter, had to apologize he is a scum bag and he does this stuff all the zbliem when on the tape you say the russia investigation was a nothing burger what did you mean . Sometimes they do have a mod couple of shame, though. And we get the other people. Not always villains these are honest people in the press. They wont tell you this on tv but say it behind the scenes. Honestly. What do you really think about the russia thing . Its bs why do they do that because of ratings. The more cnn constantly russia this, russia that. Is this ratings. Ratings. And the manufacturer of consent because of the pressure to make money, also all that Journalism School stuff you hear about, thats really cute. But i dont know. I have a cutesy little ethics that used to get talked in Journalism School. Youre like thats you a doshl. Thats adoorable. Yeah so that. This is a business. This is a business thats why we present print this is it you have as John Bonfield said it was b. S. And the reid videos trend. Number oned trending on youtube. Everyone talking about them and then sol convalley says wait a second we cant allow this sort of information to get to the people. We cant allow these videos to get millions of views Silicon Valley gets involved and shadow bans you and tenger with the algorithms we go to Silicon Valley. Undercover. [ applause ] and we get the media says this doesnt exist. Dont fake my word for it listen to the Software Engineers at twitter telling me what a shadow ban. One strategy is to shadow ban. So that you have ultimate control. The idea of a shadow ban is that you ban someone but they dont know theyve been banned because they keep posting but no one sees the content High Pressure thp. They think no one engages with their content when in reality no one sees it. Thats a pretty clear explicit statement about the shadow bans bans which they say dont exist. The press defends twitter. Twitter space no we dont do this. This is not journalism. Its not journalism to just echo, repeat, reiterate what the people who are spokes people for the billiondollar monster tell you. You have to challenge which means being braft. I have six minutes left to what happened next. All of this happened and then i goat a not from a girl, not from a girl messaging me on facebook, from someone who is messaging me within facebook. A facebook employee. Who says, the things i find the company doing are appalling i felt the public has a right to know even if it meant sacrificing my own career. I saw things going on that i personally found to be troubling. I knew that something had to be done about it. I felt the best thing to do was to inform the public. Inform the public she did. She released code screen shot showing them deboosting videos for political reasons. Facebook fired her for doing so. That inspired another insider, a guy in google pb greg coppola went public for while employed for g google. Its a time to decide, you know do we run the technology does the Technology Run us . Are we continuing to have election that is mean anything . Are we going to continue to think for ourselves or are we going to just let the Biggest Tech Companies decide who wins every election from from now. Google retaliated but that inspired third insider in google to come public. This one leaked a memorandum, secret memorandum talking about something out of a George Orwell novel, allege richlic unfairness listen to this. In this project veritas video which i did watch last night, imagine that a google image yeary for ceo shows predominantly men. If it were a factually representation of the world, it would be algorithmic unfairness. In some cases it may be appropriate to take no action if the system alkt affects current reality while in other cases it may be desirable to consider how we might help society reach a more equitable state via product intervention. What does that mean . When i go to Google Search and i type in a search for something i hope to get reality. The facts. Evidently not. And the information the insider gave us helped us krob the rate was google was really doing as it related to the 2020 elections. We should break. I know but she is very misguides. That will not make it better to know all the same people that dont have the same reasons we do well be charged with preventing the next trump situation. Charged with preventing the next trump situation says google. Do you think its googles job to quote, prevent the next trump situation . Thank you, senator. I dont agree with that. That prompted another insider within this is starting to have a chain of events said that Jordan Peterson and ben shapiroey nsa he is. This led to another hearing. Dennis preyinger and ben shapiro are naziss given the premises what do we do about it . Two of three of the pete are religious view juice yet you think theyre nazis. Begs the question what kind of education people at google have. [ applause ] so and maybe the most amazingly heroic insider who blew the whistle of them all, the pinterest insider showed us code censering bible verses you couldnt type in bible verse on pinterest. They considered live action the nations leading prolife organization as pornography. They took the video down. But it didnt deter eric. Eric went public. Eric cochrane and said this. To me there is no other option, like, i could go through life and i could live in the comforts of life and i could go on for 80 years and then make money, do the formula of life, and then ill just fall to ashes. And i think thats how a lot of people live their lives. This is something that no matter what happens, no matter what i lose, it will mean something after im gone. This junk man was making hundreds of thousands of dollars working in Silicon Valley and gave it you will all up for the publics right to know. You know what, im proud to announce i know got a minute and a half left opheim. Im proud to announce Eric Cochrane is back stage. Eric, would you please come up here. [ applause ] eric is going to say a few words. Pinterest when they fired me they thought that would be the end of me. That he thought that i would shut up and fear being black balled. But i hope im a manifestation that there is life after after blowing the whistle, after breaking free from the formula of life. That you can do the right thing, and all it takes is just one insider on the inside of these major institutions, be it education, be it big tech, google, facebook, twitter, pinterest. Political campaigns, be it government, be it big media, and Everybody Knows somebody on the inside. If you know somebody on the inside of a major institution, come talk to us. Kwo to project veritas. Com brave or find us after. We will personally work with insiders to tell stories. What are you saying the ammo for get skin in the game because this is where it matters. The media is gearing up for the ended of roe v. Wade on the 2020 election right now. Now is the time to act absolutely. We have an announcement. [ applause ] [ applause ] we have one announcement to make real quick. One announcement. Because of what eric did, another person came to us on the inside. He came to us. Were proud to announce the next insider blowing the whistle recording for months. All of his colleagues, bosses and senior people maybe the biggest project veritas broke. Next we can the neck insider blowing the whistle on the next organization is within cnn. [ applause ] [ applause ] and friday Funeral Services will be held for maryland congressman elijah cummingss who died last we can. The 13term congressmans life will be celebrated at new psalmist baptize church in baltimore, maryland. 10 eastern on cspan. Online on cspan. Org on listen live on the free cspan radio app. Live friday night two candidates challenging President Trump for the republican noms cspan hoeft as vofrgs with former governor bill weld and former South Carolina governor and South Carolina governor mark sanford talking about plans and strategies and why running against the president. They will take calls tweets and facebook comments. Part of cspans 2020 coverage live friday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Watch any time on cspan. Org and listen wherever you are using the free cspan radio app. Politiccon, the unpolitical Political Convention live from music center live in nashville. Saturday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Speakers include and coulter and david forum. Former fbi director james comey. And political analyst for msnbc and nbc news nicole wallace. Political commentatorers James Carville and sean hannity. And minnesota senator al franken watch any time on cspan. Cspan. Org and listen wherever you are using the free cspan radio app. Next a Panel Discussion on the current u. S. Health care system. And Health Care Proposals like medicare for all. And the Affordable Care act. This is an hour and 15 minutes