White House Urges ‘Extreme Caution’ to Viewers of Project Veritas Videos
The Obama administration warns that Americans and journalists should be skeptical of material coming from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas.
During the White House press briefing, press secretary Josh Earnest warned that Americans and journalists should take Project Veritas videos “not just with a grain of salt but maybe even a whole package of salt.”
“Despite what the name might suggest, these videos have not often revealed the truth,” Earnest said, though he admitted that many Democrats had been forced out of their jobs as a result of O’Keefe’s work.
Robert Creamer, a top Democratic operative featured in the video, stepped down from his position after he admitted in the video that he was actively trying to incite violence at opposing political rallies.
Earnest said that he was “reluctant” to comment on the videos themselves, but talked about the topic of “birddogging” opposing rallies.
In general, Earnest said, the notion of inciting violence in an opposing candidate’s campaign was contrary to Obama’s views of community organizing.
“We shouldn’t have to resort to violence and in fact it is completely inappropriate to resort to violence to advance a political goal,” he said, calling it a principle that President Obama “strongly believed in.”
Earnest urged viewers to have “extreme caution” with Project Veritas videos.
“Time and time and time again, the information that was released by this organization was a lot different than initial reports would indicate,” he said.
Earnest dodged questions about reports that Creamer had visited the White House 342 times and met personally with Obama 47 times.
“I’m not sure that I can describe it, because, I’m not sure there is much of one,” he said, when asked to describe Obama’s relationship with the Democratic operative.
