March 19, 2023 - Human Events Daily - Jack Posobiec
37:13
SUNDAY SPECIAL: THE TRUTH ABOUT JAMES O'KEEFE
On this can’t miss Sunday Special edition of Human Events Daily, Jack Posobiec is joined by none other than James O’Keefe, founder and CEO of O’Keefe Media Group and the two dive into a deeply important conversation about the deterioration of traditional journalism and solutions to fix the problem. Poso asks the hard questions about trust in the media process and O’Keefe dives into his tumultuous departure from the company he founded Project Veritas and the hope of his new venture, OMG and ar...
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Today is March 19th, Sunday, 2023.
Anno Domini.
This is our full interview, our full exclusive sit down.
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We are excited here to bring on James O'Keefe, the new head of the O-M-G, the O'Keefe Media Group.
James O'Keefe, welcome back to Human Events Daily.
Hey, Jack.
Great to see you.
I got to ask, man, how did you come up with the name, the O-M-G?
I mean, I get O'Keefe Media Group, but surely somebody said to you, James, are you sure you want the O-M-G?
You sure you want to go in with that?
Walk me through that one.
I was sitting in my new war room here, which we, you know, I've had about 10 people that I've identified to, to, to keep doing what I'm doing.
And we were just spitting out names and, and different ideas.
And I think putting my name in it was something that most people wanted to do.
Cause I've already had one company stolen from me.
So I don't, I think it's a little more difficult when your name is in it.
And, um, it was just like, Oh, Keith media, Keith media group.
And then there was that OMG.
So it was like TMZ, OMG.
Um, oh my gosh, you know, cause the kind of like the videos that we do, it's like, oh my gosh, that's outrageous, right?
So it creates righteous indignation, shocks the people, wakes them up.
That's what we want to do.
So we have a little logo there and it's a subscription based platform where Jack, you can actually go on there and for a thousand bucks, you can actually sponsor a camera.
One of our special, uh, cameras that we will put into the hands of the willing.
Cause there have been probably 5,000 people that have emailed me over the last month that want to basically do what I do.
So now I'm going to basically, um, uh, create Uber for citizen journalism and get the cameras out where they need to go.
Well, that's actually incredible.
And so what you're also doing that, and I actually didn't realize that when you did the first rollout, so that people can go in and if you're someone who, okay, maybe you don't have in, in the Intel community, we would have said placement and access, right?
So placement and access obviously is the bread and butter of what you guys do.
I mean, your journalism.
So you may not have placement and access, but you might want to fund that type of journalism.
You might want to monetarily support it.
And by the way, you now, are there different tiers to this?
Is this something where people could maybe do like, you know, a 10 bucks a month, 20 bucks a month, whatever it is, et cetera.
Walk me through all that.
There's going to be right now we're about to break some stories like we all, like I always do.
But if you go to this website, O'Keefe media group.com there's tiers, you got, Uh, $500, you get a certificate for a grand, you can buy a camera, uh, for five grand, you can get a video from me and then for 20 bucks a month, you can just subscribe.
And eventually this website is going to have, um, basically seminars on how to do this sort of journalism.
And my vision is eventually to arm thousands of people with these little cameras and teach them about ethics.
And how to use the cameras and so forth.
So we haven't built the website out fully, but people wanted me back in action.
I'm back in action.
I'll be breaking stories in the next week or so.
And people wanted to know how they could support.
So it's not a five on C3.
It's not a non for profit.
It's just a subscription based news organization where the people that want to send their $20 can now do so they can subscribe to this website.
We will eventually build out the website as we, uh, create, uh, these, uh, these, this content and these, What I call masterclasses and how to do citizen journalism.
Well, I think that's really great because I get people all the time.
I'm sure you do too.
They come up at events, they come up at turning point events, seat back, whatever we're at.
And they say, they say, Hey, um, um, I love what you do.
I want to get started.
I want to do what you do.
How do you get started?
The first thing that I always tell people is just get out there and do it right.
Don't don't sit back and wait for permission.
Don't think that you need there's there are literally.
So we did a segment the other day talking about this, that if you get a press pass and you just go to your local, you know, city council and you find out the contracts that are going through, there are stories everywhere.
Does that happen to you?
Do you get people coming up and asking you that kind of stuff?
Oh, I mean, it's a yes.
I'm glad you brought that up.
The number one thing people always say is what can I do?
I've always said that.
But I also think people like to whine and they just people.
I mean, I'll say it because it's, you know, it's a critical of the audience, but people just like to whine.
They like to complain.
And a lot of people are complainers and whiners.
So this is my opportunity to put it back on them and say, oh, you want to do something?
OK, well, how about you take one of these little cameras and we're going to give it to you.
And if you live in wherever you live, you're going to go to your city council meeting, your school board, and you're going to start recording and we'll help you do it.
We'll guide you.
We'll train you.
We'll coach you.
Thousands of people.
Great.
We'll do it.
Let's do it.
Let's go.
And then like well i don't know i said what you said you said you want to do this so not put your money where your mouth is actually just me tweeting out by the little cheap amazon version of the camera like dozens of people bought it and they're willing and i think this experience that i've been through over the last month breaking that visor story and then being thrown out of the organization i found it has actually inspired a lot of people that they feel more activated.
So yes i go to these events everyone always asks How can I help and support?
A lot of people, I think, just want to complain.
But I think there's a small minority of people who are fearless and willing.
And that is what this company, OMG O'Keefe Media Group, is designed to do.
We're going to train and mobilize an army of citizen journalists because power hates sunlight.
And they have awoken a sleeping giant.
And the only way to hold our leaders accountable, like you have an intelligence background, is to find the people with the access, people that are in proximity to those people who have the, I call it, testicular fortitude.
To get close, to record, to jump on the proverbial grenade, not literal grenade overseas, but the proverbial grenade in Washington or wherever, and to record it, and to show people the truth, but to do it on a massive scale.
That's the mission of this organization, and I would ask What do you say to people who they would say, I'm sure one of the responses you'll get back, and we always heard this as well, because look, even when I was in the Intel community and I wasn't married yet, I didn't have kids yet, but you saw people that had been invested in for so long.
And they would see the corruption.
They would see the things that were going on.
They would see the lies.
I remember Benghazi and I remember sitting there behind my desk going, I can, I know the president United States is lying.
I know that he's lying up there on TV on the way.
I can see the footage.
I can see these lying.
We can, but he's just, he's telling people the fault, you know, this falsehood, but at the same time, you've got people saying, well, hold on a second.
You know, I'm five years away from my pension.
I got a retirement coming in.
I got bills.
I got health insurance.
What do you say to somebody like that?
Who knows whether they're at Pfizer or one of the banks, as we've seen this week, right?
Um, the complete insanity, the mismanagement of these banks, someone who knows something that's going on, but they're too worried about the repercussions of what will happen before they came out.
You also had, of course, at CPAC, that incredible moment where the whistleblower from Pfizer came forward with you on stage knowing, by the way, she's probably not going to be welcome back in that industry anytime soon.
How do you get someone?
To take that next step.
That's a great question.
I wrote a whole book about this.
Um, but let me summarize, you know, there's this, there's this old saying where if you go in one direction, you lose your life.
If you go in the other direction, you betray your conscience.
But there is definitely a degree of suffering that goes along with, with truth telling.
Um, but you, but you maintain your own soul.
Right?
You're loyal to some greater thing.
And we're all going to die one day.
I don't hate to break the news to you, but life is short.
And I think more and more people right now want meaning in their life.
They want to actually make a difference.
More so now than ever before.
Most people are quite envious of my little ragtag group of people here at OMG.
Because they're like, I wanna do what you're doing.
Um, and I'm not asking for everyone to do it.
I mean, maybe 1% of people that email me are actually willing to do it, but that's a lot of people.
I've gotten like 10,000, you know, emails here in the last couple of weeks.
So that, that's a, that's a, you know, that's, that's a hundred people wanting to wear cameras, which will turn into a thousand people.
And to answer your question, they may be able to stop one person like me or Debbie, right.
But they can't stop an army of people.
That's never happened before, really.
I mean, there's been a few journalists here and there.
You've been doing good work.
Some of my colleagues, some of my former colleagues, doing great work.
But imagine thousands and thousands of people sticking together.
That's what the powerful people fear.
Like thousands of whistleblowers coming out at the same time.
And yes, it's hard, but there's also a lot of grace that comes along with that so-called suffering.
And you're adhering to the truth.
You're being loyal to your conscience.
Sometimes the public's right to know is so great That it's worth the sacrifice inflicted on you.
And there is a support network.
We are going to support you.
I will create seminars on ethics and legal primers and technology to support you.
And I told Debbie, I was like, well, listen, Pfizer is going to have to go through me to get to you.
Okay.
And if they go through me, they got an army of people by my side.
And Debbie was inspired to come out as a result of what happened to me.
She was previously unwilling to go public.
Uh, she was afraid, but after I was thrown out of the organization, I found it a week after the Pfizer story, she became inspired to go public.
And that was a really beautiful thing.
And I think there's going to be a lot more people to do the same.
Look, James, I mean, and, and if you're willing to share anything with us on that, people are so confused.
It's like, it's like a roller coaster and everyone's head is spinning with whiplash over this, the Pfizer video drops.
This thing, the last time I checked, it was at like 30 million.
It's probably up to 50 million views at this point.
One of, if not the biggest project Veritas video that I've ever seen has come out.
One of the biggest stories, just an absolute apex moment.
And then suddenly, you know, the brakes are put on hold.
It feels like there's all this instability.
You leave the organization.
Can you walk us through those six weeks?
Just what was going on from your perspective?
Are you able to share that with us?
Well, I don't know if you guys saw my, um, my, uh, uh, remarks departing.
Did you, did you happen to see those?
I mean, I, uh, I mean that that's basically what, what I have to say about the matter.
I mean, it was, I, I, Set it to my staff, 60 people, 65 people.
And it was, um, and then it was leaked.
I recognize that when I, you know, distribute a Vimeo link to 70 people, someone's going to probably leak it, but I didn't leak it.
Um, you know, and that's what I have to say about the matter.
It's all there.
I'm, I never really paid attention to board governance.
I was the CEO.
Um, and I was taking responsibility for everything.
I kind of ran it in an orthodox way.
And so far as I was taking responsibility for everything, I did my yearly audits.
I had my quarterly financial statements.
Um, but it was, it was quite bizarre.
I just deal about black cars and sandwiches.
If you watch my ad for OMG, I actually get out of the black car and I throw a sandwich.
I was a homage to these really strange things.
Um, and I, and I've been the same man for 13 years.
I probably improved a bit.
Um, but I think, In a media organization, in a media company, most media news organizations are corrupted at the top.
In traditional newsrooms, journalists don't really do journalism.
Investigative journalism is a thing of the past because most organizations are pursuing a profit or they don't understand how to run a balance sheet when it pertains to investigative reporting.
So having ethics and integrity is going to be critical.
And sometimes it's not always profitable if you're trying to squeeze profit.
Uh, but I, I ran that organization.
I spent 14 years of my life, uh, building a credible news organization.
And, uh, and suddenly there was an emergency to oust me, uh, all of a sudden, which doesn't make sense to me.
It doesn't make sense to any of you, but I would, I would say to you that I learned a lot from it.
Um, I'm going to be more effective as a result of it.
I've certainly seen a lot of evil and darkness, but I've also really seen a lot of good.
I've been able to identify a few people that are absolutely
I mean, amazing human beings that I've gone through this with me and have been by my side and really, you know, this is a movement that requires really strong people in their souls, absolutely unyielding, won't bend at the knee, won't be pressured, people that will do it for free, which some of us have been doing here, Jack, for the last couple of weeks.
You know, sleeping on the floor and eating pizza and doing what we have to do.
That's what we're doing over here because we believe in it.
And, and I think I'll be more effective as a result of this.
And I've learned a lot of things that will help me as I venture to the next level, which is to equip thousands of people with the cameras, as opposed to just a couple dozen.
That's incredible.
And I appreciate you sharing with that with us and being as candid as you've been.
I mean, can you walk us through.
Just what is the process there?
What's the process of that of determining who those individuals are to start with your, your, I mean, it's like your startup right now.
Basically you are a startup, right?
Yes.
Um, that you are, you've gone through 13, 14 years of your public career.
Now you're back at the beginning, right?
You've, you've, you've gone back to the start in a sense, but it's a new start.
Can you explain that process to us?
Well, I wouldn't say it's a start.
It is definitely a start up.
This is not a 5-1-C-3.
This is a subscription-based news organization, and you will see stories in the coming days.
You might even see a story like tomorrow or Monday.
I mean, as I speak to you, these things are flying across the transom, even more from Pfizer.
I mean, we have people inside Pfizer that only trust us.
They don't trust anybody else.
Because they know that I'm not for sale.
They know that even though this is a subscription-based news organization, no one will... I'm operating without fear or favor.
No one will tell me what not to do and tell me what do do, and I own this.
There's no board of directors that own this right now.
But I think to answer your question, if you go to this website... I want to be clear about that, by the way, because I haven't heard you say anything about that you're... I've never seen, to my knowledge, Project Grotas, even in the past, I've never seen you take ads, I've never seen you Uh, work with, with any of those types of, um, yeah, programmatic advertisements or anything like that.
And you're saying right now that you're not going into this with huge financial backing or any of that stuff.
You're just asking for subscriptions.
No, I maxed out my credit card in the last week to, to, uh, and my colleague, um, one of my brave colleagues who is volunteering put on his credit card, the flight for Debbie to CPAC.
That's, that's what we're doing over here.
Okay, because we believe in it.
Because my people are we're working for free for the last two weeks, myself included, and that's fine.
Because the people that are willing to do this are willing to do it for free.
When I tweeted out, hey, go buy these Amazon cameras, and literally like a few dozen people bought them and say, I'm ready to go.
So but the next level today, we're getting a few 1000 subscriptions right now.
So I can make payroll and hire my people officially and For a thousand bucks, you can actually buy a camera for one of our sources.
And as my understanding is in the last two hours, I think a few, uh, how many people do we have doing that?
Maybe a couple dozen have already put in those thousand dollar subscriptions so that we can buy the camera.
So what I envision Jack is that eventually we're going to have seminars on ethics and technology, legal primers, so that we can, we can mobilize these people at these events and put them to work.
That's my vision.
Uh, so that we can create a vast army of citizen journalists and that will happen.
It's already happening right now.
Now, one thing, and I appreciate you mentioning that about, about Pfizer, about how there's people who they don't feel trust, right?
Because when you're dealing with what we would call source management and source handling, right.
People talk about sources and we use these phrases like placement and access.
We used to, you know, in the Intel community, we'd say human intelligence and source management, confidential human.
At the end of the day, it's just people.
Okay.
It's just people.
And if you've got to hand off a source from someone that you have a trusted relationship with someone who in many of these cases, you're opening yourself up to, you know, just in the journalism side, legal liability, you're opening yourself up to political liability.
You might be fired financial liability, all of this.
You cannot do that without a trust based relationship.
So James, when you're, when you're looking at.
Take Pfizer, for example, these types of relationships, how important is that source management?
Obviously, you know, seeing somebody like Debbie come out at on stage like that and present herself to the entire world is, is the pinnacle of it.
But people don't understand.
I think a lot of the audience may not even understand what it takes to get someone from that first.
That first email, that first text, that nibble all the way up to being on stage next to you, if you know what I mean.
Well, I do know what you mean.
And it comes down to trust.
And it sounds like a cliche.
You know, we hear the words integrity and our whole lives.
What does that mean?
It means you do the right thing.
You know, to quote the 60-minute whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, interviewed by Mike Wallace in 1996, one of the most famous whistleblowers of all time.
There's a whole movie about it called The Insider with Al Pacino.
It's a great movie.
Love it.
Jeffrey Wigand says to Mike Wallace, Mike Wallace said, why are you doing this?
And Wigand said, because it's the right thing to do.
So it's doing the right thing.
Um, uh, and when you have nothing to gain from the transaction, it's, and, and, and, and the problem in the for-profit news industry traditionally has been, if you're running it like a business, you're going to squeeze every ounce of profit out of it.
And investigative reporting, some of my stories have cost a million dollars to do.
Okay.
It's very expensive.
It takes months of the story we did, you know, on the border of last year.
I mean, months and months and months and dozens of people.
And most people, it's sort of philanthropic work, right?
So, and then there's the fear factor.
That is to say, you operate without fear or favor, to quote an old slogan.
I think it was from Pulitzer 120 years ago.
That means you operate without fear, and you operate not partial to a particular policy.
Well, hell.
I mean, 99% of the people in media, all they do is talk about their preference for policy.
I just want the cold, hard facts.
So I think in source management, if you operate without fear, if you're philanthropically minded and you're not shoving policy down my throat, you're just focused on the cold, hard facts.
I think you can engender trust with people.
And I think when it came to Debbie and you can, um, you know, she's my first whistleblower, uh, in the last couple of weeks.
She, she was inspired to, to go on that seat.
You were with me at CPAC Jack.
She was inspired because she saw what happened and she, you know, and I don't want to put words in her mouth, but certainly it's very suspicious timing.
Um, and, um, she decided that, that, you know, she would follow.
And I think, uh, you can't really philosophize courage.
You can't tell people to do something.
You have to do it yourself and then people will follow.
So it's kind of some momentum that we have right now with OMG and O'Keefe media group.
Thousands of people want to follow Debbie's footsteps, kind of a band of brothers to quote Henry the fifth.
I know I texted you that, that quote from, from Shakespeare, we few, we happy few band of brothers.
And that's what, that's what essentially this is.
Right.
And I think people have to realize that, I mean, you've walked towards the fire for the entire time that I've known you.
The challenges that come up, whether it be the New York Times, whether it be lawsuits, whether it be literal FBI raids, uh, coming at you, people have to understand that when you're doing what James O'Keefe does on a regular basis, you have that constant sort of Damocles that's just hanging above your head.
You don't know when that, when there is a knock at that door at five in the morning or five in the evening, whenever it is, you don't know who's on the other side of that.
Right.
And that's always something that's the danger, I think, of living on the edge.
And that's why so many journalists today, they, you know, they, they go back into whatever's safe.
They say, I'm just going to do the work of Pfizer.
I'm going to do the work that a big tech wants that Silicon Valley wants.
Well, let's take a look at Silicon Valley right now.
Does that seem like it's being run very well?
Let's take a look at the banking sector.
Let's take a look at pharma, all of this.
It's all falling apart.
So, so James, what can people do when they, we see our government And we see our systems, not just government, but our whole system that seems like it's falling apart at the seams.
And yet all the people, how many people that go there thousands of people every day, they show up, they go to work, they check in, they clock in, they check out, they work their eight hours.
They come back.
Meanwhile, credit suites is falling apart.
You've got banks falling apart, left and right Gavin Newsom's bank, who doesn't even tell us gets a bailout bailout because he's pushing for a bailout.
And guess what?
They bailed out his own bank because of course he does.
So I guess what I, what I, when I come back on the side of it is when we live in a time of such.
when so many systems are going crazy, not to mention, not even to get into the election stuff, 'cause obviously we're getting close to 24, so we know there's gonna be a lot of elections coming up.
But when you look at these types of things, do you have any specific targets in terms of industries that you look at on the horizon or potential leads in to different areas that you're looking at with OMG as you start out here? - I would say all of it.
I mean, if you're every school board, every NGO, every three letter agency, every city council, I think, I think this whole process with Pfizer has awakened a sleeping giant.
I've never seen anything like it in terms of people DMing me and messaging.
I mean, thousands say to hell with it.
I forget my nine to five, give me the camera.
So I, I've never seen that before.
Um, sometimes things happen for a reason.
So I think in the coming months, you'll see this army expanding into every state house, every school board, everywhere people are conspiring to keep themselves in power and line their pockets with tax dollars.
And their greed and their self-interest is hurting society.
That's the purpose of journalism.
We all know real journalism has been dead for a long time now.
And when I got started, one of the biggest stories, Jack, is remember the acorn story, the pimp and hooker?
Two kids from the cast of High School Musical 3 had to break that story with their grandmother's chinchilla coat and $1,300 in credit card debt.
Where was the New York Times?
I mean, it's going to require some sacrifices of people.
It's going to require a leap of faith.
And I've taken that leap of faith.
I mean, I've, I've, I've been ousted from the organization I founded.
And I'm taking a leap of faith that I'm asking people to take a leap of faith with me and my band of brothers.
I've got 10 elite journalists.
These are the best of the best of the best working with me right now.
And you can subscribe on the website, sponsor a camera, get access to our website.
We'll have more material for you very soon.
But I think it requires taking a leap of faith.
And I think the real mission here is to give people hope.
I think that real mission is to give people hope, And, um, get through this fear that people are fearing, feeling, uh, people are very afraid.
So it's our job to find the people who are not afraid and create an army of citizen journalists.
Amen.
No, no, no.
I got to ask, right.
Because, you know, I, and I follow you on social media.
I don't just share the stuff, but, but you at this picture with right.
And, you know, obviously in the wake of Pfizer, someone who's been very outspoken on that RFK jr.
You guys looked like you were out hiking to me.
Like you're on the, on, on a huge hike, obviously on social media, you've been posting that you go to the gym on a regular basis.
And if you can for us, cause I got a little bit of time left with you here.
Walk me through what's a day in the life of James O'Keefe.
Like, do you find that training that physical fitness is a way for you to maintain?
Obviously you've got a huge, you've got so much hope, even in the face of everything that's been thrown against you.
Do you find that that comes through physical activity and do you find that helpful?
Walk us through just what's, what's a day in the life of James O'Keefe like?
Wow.
Um, well, I think that the biggest source of strength through this whole process has probably come from God.
Um, and there's been a lot of grace afforded to me.
Although I've been through a lot of pain in my life, and everyone of us goes through pain, right?
We all experience pain differently and we lose loved ones or, you know, get fired from our jobs.
We all go through that.
And to help answer your question, you know, my mentor Andrew Breitbart died March 1st, 2012, arrested twice by the FBI, three years on effective house arrest when I was 25 to 28 years old.
Two federal jury trials in the last three years, constant defamation over and over and over and over again.
In the very beginning when I was 26, the Wikipedia page made me cry.
It was so horrible.
I mean, just literally stating the opposite of what is true.
And it just over and over again for so many years, it strengthens you for the next one.
And then it strengthens you for the next one.
And I mean, I went through a horrible trial in September of literally this past year.
Two weeks in federal court with a jury who was, It was just a horrible, almost satanic experience.
And that was actually harder than this.
All these things have strengthened me like a muscle in the gym.
You could call it spiritual muscle conditioning.
I would say that... Spiritual fitness.
Spiritual fitness, that's right.
There you go.
And I would say that those things have prepared me for the next one, so that even though, ostensibly, the most recent thing looks the worst, Being shackled and put in federal prison was actually worse.
You know, being stuck in a courtroom for two weeks with jurors who want to kill you just because they think they don't like your perceived politics.
I'm not sure what they thought.
That was worse.
Being alone on house arrest and having federal probation officers harass my family 12 years ago was a hundred times worse.
And I didn't have any money.
I had no support.
And I, and I managed to, we managed to be resilient in the face of those impossible odds.
So I think there's the spiritual aspect of this, which is a fight of good versus evil now, obviously.
Um, and the evil has gotten worse and the good has gotten more good.
And I think there's also every, every day you have to take care of yourself.
You have to, whether it's an hour in the gym or hiking with RFK in Los Angeles, which I did with him.
Um, he's a great man.
He's very smart.
He's been very supportive of me through this.
Um, I spent some time with him and he knows a lot about Pfizer.
He knows a lot about the United States government through letter agencies and what they're doing.
Um, I think it's very important that we take care of ourselves physically because our body is our temple.
And, um, I make sure that every day I probably at least for an hour to an hour and a half, I do that.
Oh, that's incredible.
That that's something that I got into.
Um, you know, I'll admit when I was going through college, that wasn't something that was, that was my focus.
I was, you know, I, I moved over to China.
I was, I was learning, learning Mandarin, finding out about the CCP.
But for me, it was when I joined the military and then started getting used to this general regimen of, uh, physical fitness, watching your diet, understanding that, you know, God gave you one health.
God gave, gives you one body.
God gives you one set of skills and it is up to us to maintain that.
To perfect that to continue to make it better.
And he didn't give us those things for us to just sit on the couch and do nothing with, right?
He gave us those things for a reason.
This is the parable of the talents.
And so when I hear you talk about this, you're right.
It is it's spiritual training.
It's physical training.
It's mental training because a lot of, look, you can, you can be physically strong.
You can be as physically strong as you want, but if you don't know how to respond, when somebody, You know, writes a hit piece on you or starts attacking you in the media or not even on your level of where they're going after you in court, where they're going after you through legal processes, you will completely break down.
And I find that that's something that's sorely lacking in our society today.
And I think it, it's what's gotten us to this point.
And so if I could say anything about, about what you're doing with the new group, the fact that you continue to fight for it.
And by the way, everyone who asked me that, and even, you know, we only chatted a little bit.
uh, when, when you were all dark on Twitter, et cetera.
And I was, people were asking me, is James okay?
Is James, I said, do you know anything about James O'Keefe?
He's going to be great.
He's going to be perfectly fine because he's been through 10 times worse than this.
And he's only going to bounce back stronger.
I'm asking what, don't ask me about James O'Keefe.
Ask me about yourself.
What are you doing?
What are you doing to get ready?
And so it's so great for me to hear that that's exactly what you're talking about with the OMG.
A lot of people want to live maybe perhaps vicariously through me, uh, or they kind of want to see my trajectory.
Cause you know, the tip of the spear is, was one of the values.
Um, but But I think there's a lot to say about that spiritual strengthening.
The difficulties, the challenges of being in federal court, the litigation piece has been, I mean, man, I've been sued dozens of times, deposed, you know, a dozen times.
You're a key witness in so many different pieces of litigation.
And I would say that that has been very challenging.
And sometimes taxing in Kafkaesque.
It's very difficult for a man to maintain a sense of sanity in the face of that when you're confronted with so much gaslighting.
You have to have a firm constitution.
You have to have a strong sense of identity.
A strong sense of right and wrong.
You can't bend the knee.
You have to stick by your guns, particularly in politics, which I don't consider myself a very political person.
But in politics, there's a lot of phony people.
There's a lot of people who are in it for the clout or the fame or whatever you want to call it.
And they're not approaching things from a rational perspective.
So it is a very unique journey.
But I'm doing great.
I'm, I'm stoked for this project.
I've got so many things to do as I'm sitting, talking to you.
This is quite a long segment.
I'm getting dozens of emails of people that are like, get me the camera.
I want to expose X, Y, and Z. So I'm just ready to get to work.
That's, that's what I'm focused on right now.
By the way, the, uh, that, the, that book Kafka.
So the trial and everyone should go read the trial by Kafka, but I don't know if, uh, I forget if I mentioned this with you, maybe it was only with Charlie, but I recently found out that the German title.
Of the trial by Kafka.
I actually think it's better.
The German title is called their process.
It's just called their process.
It's and it's so perfect because throughout the entire book, he, he's never even informed what it is that he's been charged with.
He's never, he doesn't, it's not explained to him what he's accused of being done, but of course they have their informant and they have their evidence and they have their accusations and here's your lawyer.
Here's what you can say.
Here's what you can't say.
And so if you haven't been through a trial like that, if you haven't been put into this system, People need to understand, the process is the punishment.
The process is the punishment.
You tweeted that out after my FBI raid, and it was very much a sort of Damocles.
That was very difficult, because what it's designed to do is it's designed to instill fear in you, like a perjury trap, and you're not supposed to continue.
I continued, that was three years ago almost, and I continued going.
Um, but you know, you get the criminal defense lawyers and then they say, well, you're not supposed to say anything or do anything, hide in your apartment, you know?
So it's just this fear based approach to living.
But the, the sort of Damocles, that's a very apropos metaphor, which is like to say, after that happened, I mean, the, for the FBI to raid your home is a very aggressive thing and it scares the hell out of you.
And I was one of the first journalists in the United States history.
To ever be rated by the FBI.
So much so that the ACLU and the Reporters Committee have come out in my defense and requested these affidavits remain unsealed.
So yes, it's Kafkaesque because they would never do that to the New York Times or CNN.
They could never do that.
And it's the injustice of all of it.
If you're a man that cares about justice, the injustice, it can really hurt you spiritually.
It can discourage you.
It can make a normal man lose his mind.
That is why the people that are signing up on this website have to be strong people.
They have to be really strong and have an incredible sense of self, an incredible sense of right and wrong.
That's what this is really about, isn't it?
It's about the line in the sand, the line that separates good and evil runs through each and every human heart, not through states or political parties, but each and every one of us, that line is drawn in our hearts.
And it's in the, and it's drawn in the hearts of the, Are the people that we expose here at OMG and the evil and the lies and the malfeasance and the line that the pocket, the pockets with tax dollars.
That's what we expose.
And the only hope for society is a citizen army holding the institutions accountable.
You can do that.
You can go to this website right now and help us sponsor a camera.
And you've known me for 14 years.
You know that I don't quit.
I don't give up.
Um, and, um, I'm going to make this bigger and batter, and we're going to change the world together.
James, I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Is there any last message that you have for us for the entire community before you head off today?
Stay tuned.
We'll have a story in the next couple of days.
Amazing.
James O'Keefe, the founder.
Do you even have an official title yet there?
Founder and CEO.
Founder and CEO of the O'Keefe Media Group.
O'KeefeMediaGroup.com.
James, thank you so much for your time with us today.
Appreciate it.
All right, folks, remember the website is O'Keeffe Media Group, okeeffemediagroup.com.
Incredible interview going inside the mind of James O'Keeffe to give us the truth about everything that's happened over the past six weeks and more.
One thing's for sure, James, whatever you do going forward will be there with you.
