Donald Trump posted a video to Facebook on Monday that accused Democratic operatives and party officials of staging incidents at his campaign events as part of a coordinated effort to paint him and his supporters as violent and dangerous.
The video, released by Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, comes as Trump has amplified his charges that the electoral system is rigged and the media is colluding with Hillary Clinton’s campaign to sabotage his candidacy.
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“The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary – but also at many polling places – SAD,” he tweeted over the weekend.
O’Keefe’s video, which he billed as an “October surprise,” fits perfectly into the “rigged election” theme that Trump and many of his allies have been pushing for months. Undercover footage featured in the 16-minute film shows longtime Democratic political activists discussing ways in which they have instigated violence at the billionaire’s massive campaign rallies, among other GOP events.
“What I call it is conflict engagement,” Scott Foval, who serves as the national field director for the progressive advocacy group Americans United for Change, tells a Project Veritas staffer at one point in the video. “Conflict engagement in the lines at Trump rallies — we’re starting anarchy here.”
“We have mentally ill people that we pay to do s—t. Make no mistake,” another individual, whose identity is not revealed, says in the video.
O’Keefe claims his investigation reveals that many of the individuals who were caught on camera at Trump rallies being attacked both verbally and physically by his supporters were sent by activist groups working with the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign.
“I answer to the head of special events for the DNC and the head of special events and political for the campaign,” Foval says in the video. “The campaign pays DNC, DNC pays Democracy Partners, Democracy Partners pays the Foval Group, the Foval Group goes and executes the s—t on the ground.”
The video is the first in a multi-part series that Project Veritas claims will expose “the dark secrets at the highest levels of the DNC and Clinton presidential campaign.” O’Keefe claims his next video will highlight a “voter fraud scheme discussed at the highest levels” of the former secretary of state’s’ campaign.
Trump has long encouraged his supporters, particularly in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, to monitor polling stations for voter fraud, despite pushback from a handful of GOP officials.
“Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!” Trump tweeted Monday morning, less than 24 hours after his running mate, Mike Pence, said he and the GOP nominee will “absolutely” accept the outcome of the Nov. 8 election.
Watch the full video by Project Veritas below:
