Rigging the election

Third Video

James O’Keefe

Project Veritas Action

Project Veritas Action (PVA) Commentary

After last week’s stories, released by Project Veritas Action, Americans United For Change fired Scott Foval. And Robert Creamer “stepped down” from the Hillary Clinton Campaign.

0:02

Third Video

SECTION I

(the sections are our designation, not PVA’s)

The Players

Their Organizations

Quotes

Video

Jenna Price

Democratic National Committee

Assistant Press Secretary

“We just have to be careful about these things, and the way we talk about them, and who knows about certain things.”

0:12

Scott Foval

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

National Field Director

“We have to clear this with the DNC, with the Democratic National Committee. We have to clear which message we’re going to be targeting at each event.”

0:18

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“In the end, it was the candidate, Hillary Clinton, the future president of the United States, who wanted ducks on the ground so, by God, we will get ducks on the ground.”

[PVA journalist: “Oh she….so it’s…wow.”]

“Don’t repeat that to anybody.”

0:28

Brad Woodhouse

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

President

“I think this duck is going to get roughed up somewhere."

0:43

Scott Foval

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

National Field Director

“I almost got punched on Monday morning. I mean, I was in a duck costume.”

0:47

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“If the future president of the United States wants ducks on the ground, we will put ducks on the ground.”

0:50

James O’Keefe:

“This is Part III of our undercover investigation into the dark, backroom dealings of the Hillary Clinton campaign. In this story, we’ll show an illegal dark money conspiracy between the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DNC and the non-for-profit corporation Americans United For Change. And it’s all disguised as a duck."

0:55

Project Veritas Action

presents

Part 3

DONALD “DUCKS”

[some material from the previous two videos is shown as introduction]

1:17

James O’Keefe:

“It was earlier this year when people in Donald Duck costumes started showing up at Trump events across the country. It turns out 'the duck' was Hillary’s idea.

1:54

Third Video

SECTION II

(the sections are our designation, not PVA’s)

The Players

Their Organizations

Quotes

Video

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“Tomorrow we start this initiative on the tax returns. So, tomorrow morning at Trump Tower, I hope we can arrange it so it goes down the escalator. We will launch…Donald Ducks.”

“A guy in a Donald Duck costume with a sign that says, 'Donald Duck’s releasing his tax returns.'”

2:02

Project Veritas Action (PVA) Commentary

“Robert Creamer runs Democracy Partners. It’s a political consulting company based in Washington, D.C. with deep ties to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and Obama’s White House. In fact, White House logs document that Creamer visited the White House 342 times and then directly with Obama 47 times. 

2:29

Third Video

SECTION III

(the sections are our designation, not PVA’s)

The Players

Their Organizations

Quotes

Video

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“In the end, that is adaptable to Donald ducks debates, Donald ducks…whatever else he ducks. We are going to have ‘Donald ducks.’”

2:47

“The real problem turns out that it’s not easy to find Donald Duck costumes for adults, as you might imagine. Five-year-olds: plenty of them. But the other ones are mascot size.

2:57

Brad Woodhouse

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

President

“We did Donald Ducks in May.

3:14

Project Veritas Action (PVA) Commentary

“Brad Woodhouse is president of Americans United For Change. After our first video, Woodhouse fired Scott Foval, his National Field Director.

3:17

Third Video

SECTION IV

(the sections are our designation, not PVA’s)

The Players

Their Organizations

Quotes

Video

Brad Woodhouse

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

President

“We put out a whole blast and a release around the idea that he was ducking.  [garble]

There were not taxes at that point, because this thing has come up repeatedly. And we…”

“The key here is to have the visual and to have the costume and have the sign. We got so much shit for that blast…you know, reporters thought it was silly…”

3:25

[garble]

“Oh no, the reporters probably still think it’s silly. But you know what? We ain’t talking to reporters, we’re talking to voters."

3:53

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“The response in the news this morning was…they..loved..it.”

4:00

“Originally, we were going to do a project, we were going to do Uncle Sam: ‘I want YOU to release your tax returns.’ I agree, it’s not as good.”

[PVA journalist: “Been done.”]

4:06

“I agree it’s not as good. It’s much easier to execute. The guy who has done this other Chicken George thing has this other idea.”

4:12

“And, in the end, it was the candidate, Hillary Clinton, the future president of the United States, who wanted ducks on the ground, so, by God, we will get ducks on the ground."

[PVA journalist: “Oh she…so it’s…wow.”]

“Don’t repeat that to anybody.”

{PVA journalist: “Okay.”]

“And it is a clever, and it is a better idea.”

4:20

“Originally, you know, this guy Sklar, who was the…did Chicken George in 1992, came to Lux and I with the idea of Donald Ducks.”

“And I ran it up the flagpole in New York and put it down…and…”

4:40

“And then they came up, and they said, ‘We’d rather do Uncle Sam: “I want you to release your tax returns.”’”

“Uncle Sam suits are easy to find for adults. But then I get a call – actually on a plane about to go to London last week – Christina “Reynolds (Hillary campaign) calls and says, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is the candidate would like to have a mascot following around the duck. I mean Trump. But the bad news is she wants it to be Donald Duck.’”

“And that’s because Sklar is an old Clinton man. He had gone to some buddy of his who is one of her body people and she had explained the idea to Hillary, and Hillary just loved it.”

5:00

Brad Woodhouse

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

President

“Okay. Let me tell you something. I think she has the right instinct here. This thing is working, is resonating, but that story…is not exactly what you want to hear about how presidential decision-making happens.”

5:48

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“So my answer to Christina was if the future President of the United States wants ducks on the ground, we will put ducks on the ground."

6:01

Project Veritas Action (PVA) Commentary

“Hillary Clinton and the DNC wanted the Donald Ducks at Trump and Pence events. The direct involvement of the campaign and the Democratic National Committee with Americans United For Change and the Donald Duck smacks of illegal, coordinated campaign expenditures. Federal campaign law experts have told us…’the ducks on the ground are likely “public communications” for purposes of the law. It’s political activity opposing Trump paid for by Americans United For Change funds but controlled by Clinton and her campaign.’”

“Representatives of Hillary’s campaign run daily conference calls we witnessed with Creamer, AUFC managers, and their operatives. They were talking about where to send the ducks and the ducks’ message. And not just the campaign. Donna Brazile’s Democratic National Committee was in on it as well.”    

6:09

Third Video

SECTION V

(the sections are our designation, not PVA’s)

The Players

Their Organizations

Quotes

Video

Scott Foval

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

National Field Director

“The operation is to insert and get the duck message in there if we can, or the extremist message depending on…we have to clear this with DNC, with Democratic National Committee. We have to clear which message we’re targeting at each event.”

6:58

“But they can insert into multiple events, now through the end of the election on a continual basis, on a daily basis. But basically do a chase all the way across the country.”

7:17

“Now, the duck stuff…for the aggressive birddogging…we want to do in front of the line before the events where we’re plastering the outside with the Trump duck message. And then we’re going into the event, everybody has their phone, we insert like twenty people.”

7:31

“Twenty to thirty people into the events where they all have their phones set to go off at the exact same time, on an alarm, with the duck call, on the inside of the events, all at once from all over the arena.”

[PVA journalist: “So they’ll catch like the incident going down.”]

8:03

“So, we want the media to notice the duck calls, right? So we have everybody load a ring tone on their phone that are all timed to go off at the exact same time.”

8:24

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“We just ordered a thousand rubber duckies with ‘Donald Ducks’ written on them to hand out to people in the press.”

[PVA journalist: “That is a cool idea. That is a cool idea”]

8:38

“And we have to order a bunch of Donald Duck hats so we can put people behind them at various events, you know, where they speak. You get the drift? I’m trying to set…I’ll probably set up a mini website.”

[PVA journalist: [garble]]

“It’s got to be Donald Ducks. It’s got to look like Donald.

[PVA journalist: “Do they license the suits?”]

“Yeah, that’s why it’s expensive to buy or rent them because they’re licensed.”

8:49

[PVA journalist: “You’re not going to run into a Disney problem [Creamer interjects: “maybe”]  or a copyright issue?”]

[Creamer clasps his hands together and leans back and looks up in a pose of supplication] “No. Please God.” [The sense is that Creamer would love to be sued for the publicity.]

[PVA journalist: ”Oh, my God. That is awesome. You’re gonna get…”]

“I doubt they will because…you know…we’re paying to rent or buy the suits. That’s where they get their license fee. We’re not using it for commercial purposes.”

9:14

Project Veritas Action (PVA) Commentary

“The DNC didn’t just help place Donald Duck at protests, they were in charge of it.”

9:35

Third Video

SECTION VI

(the sections are our designation, not PVA’s)

The Players

Their Organizations

Quotes

Video

Scott Foval

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

National Field Director

“The whole duck thing? That came about, the reason we moved it from DNC to AUFC, was to just do a hopscotch, but the actual idea was hatched way back in May.” 

9:40

Project Veritas Action (PVA) Commentary

“So our journalist asked Creamer why there was a problem with the DNC taking credit for the ducks.”

9:53

Third Video

SECTION VII

(the sections are our designation, not PVA’s)

The Players

Their Organizations

Quotes

Video

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“The duck has to be an Americans United For Change entity. This had to do only with some problem between Donna Brazile and ABC, which is owned by Disney, that they were worried about a trademark issue. That’s why."

[PVA journalist: “Okay.”]

“It’s really silly.”

“Oh, yeah, because that’s going to New York, and New York doesn’t care about any of that shit."

[PV journalist: “Okay. So it was a trademark issue with…”]

“As I said. We originally launched this duck because Hillary Clinton wants the duck.”

9:59

“In any case, so she really wanted this duck figure out there doing this stuff. So that was fine. So we put all these ducks out there and get a lot of coverage. And Trump taxes. And then “ABC/Disney went crazy because they thought our original slogan was ‘Donald ducks his taxes. Release his tax returns.’”

“They said it was a trademark issue. It’s not, but anyway. Donna Brazile had..she and I had a chat..a connection with..she might get sued. You know. So we switched the ownership of the duck to Americans United For Change ..which..and now our signs say ‘Trump ducks releasing his tax returns.’ And we haven’t had any more trouble.”

10:30

Project Veritas Action (PVA) Commentary

“On August the 18^th, the Wall Street Journal wrote that ‘Donald ducks’ was the creation of the Democratic National Committee. Then on September 8^th the Journal reported the DNC cut ties with the duck: ‘“The DNC is no longer associated with the duck. Americans United For Change is now managing the duck” a consultant for the liberal activist group told the Wall Street Journal.’”

“But behind the scenes the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign was still running the show, breaking Federal campaign coordination law.”

11:18

Third Video

SECTION VIII

(the sections are our designation, not PVA’s)

The Players

Their Organizations

Quotes

Video

Jenna Price

Democratic National Committee

Assistant Press Secretary

“We kind of divvy up responsibilities. So sometimes it will be, like campaign-owned. So sometimes you will see that they advised something, or they are taking credit for things. So, like we aren’t taking credit for the duck anymore. That’s like random ally groups. But it’s still something that we are not involved in.”

[PVA journalist: “Why aren’t you taking credit?”]

“Just ‘cause there were issues. Like it’s a whole long story. Ask Bob about it.”

Ross Therry, DNC Intern: “Intra-party politics.”

“But, no, it wasn’t party politics. But, we just have to be careful about these things, and the way we talk about them, and who knows about certain things. But you guys are. I trust that it will all be fine.”

11:46

Project Veritas Action (PVA) Commentary

Creamer and Foval even expected there to be violence following the duck, and it sounded like they wanted it to happen.

12:34

Third Video

SECTION IX

(the sections are our designation, not PVA’s)

The Players

Their Organizations

Quotes

Video

Brad Woodhouse

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

President

“You’re going to have these ducks at some of these rallies, right?”

12:41

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“Sure. Every rally.”

[garble]

Brad Woodhouse

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

President

“So are you [garble] going to provide protection? Because I got to tell you, I think this duck is going to get roughed up somewhere.”

“Somewhere someone is going to rip his costume off.”

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“It may happen at the Iowa State Fair this week."

Brad Woodhouse

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

President

“Yeah.”

13:08

Robert Creamer

Democracy Partners

Founder and Partner

“Because Pence is there and the duck is planning to follow him around."

Scott Foval

Americans United For Change (AUFC)

National Field Director

“It’s about the intensity of the reaction.” [this is a bit garbled]

[PWA journalist: “Not the duck itself?”]

“No.”

[PWA journalist: “Okay.”]

“It’s not the reaction to the duck call and the signs. Because once they pull out these signs, Trump supporters literally start throwing punches at you.”

“I almost got punched on Monday morning. I mean I was in a duck costume.”

Project Veritas Action (PVA) Commentary

“Foval didn’t get punched. But last week, he got fired. Robert Creamer resigned from Clinton campaign activities.”

13:30

“It was after Watergate that Congress passed the campaign coordination law.”

54 USC 30116(a)(7)(B)(i)-(ii) is the statute Congress passed to prohibit coordination.

“To prove a violation, three prongs are required:

1. Payment by someone other than the candidate for election activity;
2. Conduct: a campaign being materially involved in shaping communications by third-party groups.
3. Content: running electoral advocacy close to an election.”

2.11 CFR 109.21 is the regulation the FEC promulgated to define the coordination prongs: payment, content, and conduct.

“The payment is complicated. But just the fact that Foval, a paid employee of Americans United For Change, was the duck at some events constitutes payment by AUFC.

Conduct based on their own admission the campaign; Creamer, their agent; and AUFC, coordinated the duck activity.

And finally, content. ‘Donald ducks’ is undeniably political content directed against on candidate for the sole purpose of helping another.”

13:41

James O’Keefe:

“The connection between Creamer, President Obama, and Hillary Clinton is undeniable. As are the campaign law violations. If it looks like a duck; if it talks like a duck; and it walks like a duck; it’s probably a duck.”

“They broke the law.”

“Last week, Hillary denied her connection to Creamer and AUFC.”

“America, it’s time you demand she tell the truth.”

“And stay tuned. Because there’s more to come.”

14:25