{"id":12033,"date":"2013-07-03T16:58:30","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T16:58:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-03-24T02:35:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T06:35:39","slug":"interview_james_o_keefe_the_special_forces_of_the_conservative_movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/07\/03\/interview_james_o_keefe_the_special_forces_of_the_conservative_movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: James O\u2019Keefe, the Special Forces of the Conservative Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I\u2019m really proud to have our next guest, James O\u2019Keefe is here. His first book is out. It came out last week, it\u2019s called Breakthrough<\/a>. Mr. O\u2019Keefe is an interesting character. He has been a conservative all his life, but he always believed that it wasn\u2019t enough just to talk about them, just to tell people who they are. He wanted to engage in operations or behavior that was being videotaped that forced them to actually be who they are, and that\u2019s what he did. He believes that in taking on the left, it\u2019s not enough to call attention to \u2019em and act outraged and try to get other people mad about it. What you have to do is get \u2019em to act out who they are because they hide who they are. And so the book is out now. The first question I want to ask you, James — and, by the way, welcome to the program. Great to have you here.<\/p>\n

O\u2019KEEFE: Thank you so much, Rush. Great to be with you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Did you mention me in this book?<\/p>\n

O\u2019KEEFE: I may have. There\u2019s a lot of people mentioned. I know you\u2019re such an inspiration, Andrew Breitbart.<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, it would sell more if you had. (laughing)<\/p>\n

O\u2019KEEFE: (laughing)<\/p>\n

RUSH: I had to say that. I need to ask you, do you ever feel like — because your work is well-known, particularly among this audience, with ACORN, Planned Parenthood, NPR, Eric Holder\u2019s ballot offered to a stranger, the son of Congressman Jim Moran resigning after encouraging double voting, that was all you. But have you ever encountered people on our side who\u2019ve let you down, who\u2019ve said, “You know, James, you\u2019re putting too much pressure on us.” Have you had any people on our side ask you to tone it down?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

O\u2019KEEFE: You know, Rush, one of the things you\u2019ve said that really resonated with me is you said that our adversaries circle the wagons and our allies circle the firing squad. I have come to know this over the last few years in a sort of baptism by fire. People don\u2019t know this, when we did the pimp and prostitute videos on ACORN, we had spent our own money to do it, Hannah Giles and I did, and we went to Washington like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, trying to show members of the oversight committee. There\u2019s a chapter in this book, Breakthrough, where even Republicans threatened to arrest us if we didn\u2019t give them the footage exclusively. And there are so many more stories in this book about trying to speak truth to power and trying to overcome obstacles, not just from the people you would think, from the government, from the media, from the federal judiciary, and even sometimes, yes, from allies.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, it doesn\u2019t surprise me. Because some people are afraid to be — well, they don\u2019t even want to appear to be argumentative, much less confrontational, and a guy like you acting as an independent contractor, so to speak, can make some people on our side nervous. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a minority compared to the number of people who cheer you on. At any time in any of your — I don\u2019t want to call them stunts. What they really are, in their own way they\u2019re works of art. Have you ever felt personally threatened, in danger, during any of these?<\/p>\n

O\u2019KEEFE: Well, yeah, I mean, to say I was in danger was an understatement. The book starts out with me in federal jail. We had a federal judge delete my videotapes and then charge me with a crime I didn\u2019t commit. I was confined to my state where I live, New Jersey, for three years, three and a half years. The government would not let me travel without permission from a US attorney, a federal judge, and a probation officer, for a misdemeanor crime which I would argue I didn\u2019t even commit. And I was audited once a month. I had to submit cash inflows and outflows to federal agents. When I would release an investigation, they\u2019d show up at my parents\u2019 house and ask my father, “What\u2019s your son doing? What\u2019s he doing next?” We have faced the fire. And I know that they are politicizing the First Amendment. I see the Department of Justice protecting the guy who bugged McConnell and calling him a journalist, and it is this politicizing of the First Amendment which threatens us. Not just me, but everyone, all Americans, because if we lose this, if we lose the First Amendment, it\u2019s over. And we have been on the front lines, and that\u2019s what my story is about. It\u2019s about surviving them, and overcoming their obstacles and continuing to make a difference, despite everything they\u2019ve thrown at us.<\/p>\n

RUSH: We\u2019re talking with James O\u2019Keefe and his new book out last week called Breakthrough<\/a>. You might want to tell people about the very first mock investigation that you did at college. It\u2019s revealing, but, you know, everybody\u2019s interested in how people get started, what it is that interests them. You obviously have an aptitude for this, you\u2019ve had an inclination towards it, but what was the first mock investigation that you engaged in?<\/p>\n