James O’Keefe (photo, left; bio here) is an unsavory far-right political operative who created “Project Veritas” (profile here), a group that “produces deceptively edited videos” to smear legitimate media organizations and liberal groups.
O’Keefe is a professional liar. The media commonly calls his stunts “stings.” That’s not quite accurate; they’re untruthful smears. His group, Project Veritas, has been successfully sued for defamation multiple times.
His arguably most infamous dirty trick was his failed attempt to scam the Washington Post into publishing a false story about a GOP Senate candidate in an effort to discredit the newspaper (see story here and watch video below).
O’Keefe has been “ousted” from Project Veritas, CNN reported on Monday, February 20, 2023 (see story here). The accusations against him include abusive behavior (see story here) and misuse of funds (CNN link).
First impressions are, “Good riddance to bad garbage,” but it’s unclear whether Project Veritas and O’Keefe have parted ways for good, and even less clear if Project Veritas will give up its disreputable and scummy political tactics. (In which case, why would it exist?)
Critics, of course, piled on; for example, a Daily Beast contributor said, “So James O’Keefe — if being honest — was ambushed, taken outta context & not allowed to defend himself. Huh … it must feel so unfair to him.” (See story here.) O’Keefe deserves whatever anybody does to him. If his own confederates ambushed him, that’s poetic justice; but I wouldn’t take a grain of sand coming for Project Veritas at face value.
We probably haven’t heard the end of this little tempest in a teapot. And nothing good will ever come from O’Keefe or Project Veritas. For now, it is what it is.
Who knows? Maybe O’Keefe will transition from GOP dirty trickster to GOP politician, which these days isn’t much of a leap. He’s no worse than some other GOP candidates; he’d fit right in with the likes of George Santos and Marjorie Taylor Greene.