Hillary Clinton’s campaign has condemned the contents of undercover videos showing Democratic operatives seemingly colluding to inspire violence against Donald Trump’s supporters and to commit acts of voter fraud.
But Clinton’s team has also been careful to suggest that the tapes released this week by Project Veritas Action, a conservative investigative journalist group founded and headed by James O’Keefe, may have been deceptively edited.
“While Project Veritas has been known to offer misleading video out of context, some of the language and tactics referenced in the video are troubling even as a theory or proposal never executed,” Hillary For America spokesman Zac Petkanas said Wednesday. “We support the Democratic National Committee’s appropriate action addressing this matter and look forward to continue waging a campaign of ideas worthy of our democratic process.”
The Clinton response came Wednesday after major news outlets, including CNN, the Washington Post and Fox News, started asking questions about the videos.
The first undercover video released this week by O’Keefe’s outfit appeared to show a Wisconsin-based Democratic operative, Scott Foval, bragging about organizing “conflict engagement in the lines of Trump rallies.” He took credit for a Trump rally that was cancelled last year the University of Illinois at Chicago due to violence-related security concerns.
He also explained to the undercover journalists the different methods by which one could hide voter fraud.
Foval was fired Monday by Americans United for Change. He served as the group’s national field director.
A second Democratic operative, Robert Creamer, is seen in the videos seemingly advising one undercover journalist on various voter fraud methods, though he never comes right out and says it.
Creamer, who is married to Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., issued a statement following release of the video saying he would be “stepping back” from his “responsibilities working the [Hillary] campaign.”
The Trump campaign, which has long-held that Clinton and her team have been using dirty tricks to win the 2016 election, also condemned the contents of the Project Veritas Action videos.
“Once again, Donald Trump was ahead of his time,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told the Washington Post. “We see that it goes right to the top.”
Trump surrogate and former Speaker Newt Gingrich added, “The FBI should be opening an investigation into these people right now.”
