James O’Keefe wants to be the next … Robert Preston?
Project Veritas’ James O’Keefe has always been a little bit nuts. But now his own organization has turned on him, and he’s reportedly taking a break from being a dirty trickster for a while. The staff has produced a memo to the board saying that he’s abusive and crude (you don’t say!) and that donors are sick of his antics. Apparently, he’s been spending money like a drunken sailor.
All of this is par for the course for a standard right wing grifter, which he is (among other things) but I have to admit that this surprised me:
The memo’s authors also raised concerns about O’Keefe’s use of Project Veritas money to promote his own theatrical ambitions. Project Veritas is best known for its undercover stings against Democratic groups and other Republican targets. But O’Keefe, who performed in high-school musicals, has added a series of musical productions to the group’s repertoire, including an elaborate “Project Veritas” experience that involves O’Keefe dancing while wearing a bulletproof vest.
In December, Project Veritas acknowledged improperly giving O’Keefe $20,500 in “excess benefits” to pay for Project Veritas staff to accompany him to Virginia as he performed a lead role in a production of the musical Oklahoma!.
In the memo, one employee worried that all of the money spent on musicals risked alienating donors.
“All the theatre stuff and how that is handled makes me very uneasy,” the memo reads, adding later, “In the end, we are in a deficit now, our fans and potential fans beyond do not respond positively to all of that stuff.”
I guess that explains the little dance routine above. He’s planning a second career. It looks like he’s going to need one.