https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/21/feel-the-purge-er-bern/
On January 14, the investigative outlet Project Veritas released undercover footage of dialogue between one of their embedded journalists and a senior member of the Iowa field operation for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign.
In the video, Kyle Jurek predicts with relish violence in the event of a Democratic convention in which the Vermont senator is denied the nomination. And, of course, cities will burn if Donald Trump wins reelection. Jurek also praised the approaches of Joseph Stalin and the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba toward counterrevolutionaries, and said Sanders could not campaign by openly espousing views such as his own.
As usual, Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe teased at the end that this was not even the most inflammatory footage of Jurek. The campaign staffer, in fact, was arrested in Iowa earlier this month for driving while intoxicated and related offenses.
If recent history is a guide, it would be a mistake to give journalists the standing of rock stars. Nevertheless, O’Keefe’s track record would make him the Jimmy Page of investigative reporting, at least on the Right.
But O’Keefe’s latest scoop could use some perspective. Jurek’s private statements do not necessarily reflect the views of Sanders, other campaign staffers, volunteers, or reporters. Certainly some of Jurek’s disparaging remarks about his candidate—particularly calling him a poor judge of character for retaining long-time campaign manager Jeff Weaver as an advisor—shouldn’t be ascribed to the campaign.