Investigative journalist James O’Keefe gave a touching and agonizing public announcement on Monday following his official resignation as CEO of Project Veritas.
His full remarks, forwarded to the public by journalist Benny Johnson, are provided below:
🚨BREAKING: James O’Keefe’s Remarks to Project Veritas Staff: “I’ve been removed from CEO and Board”
WATCH James’ FULL COMMENTS here: pic.twitter.com/9LK4jLEPRw
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 20, 2023
“Thank you all for being here on a President’s Day, but I think it’s fitting that, you know, we’re here on President’s Day,” O’Keefe said. “So, I wrote these so I could get the words right, you know, but it’s obviously from the heart. And, I wanted to do this in person with you all, not over a Zoom or Teams. And, you know, he’s going to film it.”
“And, and this is, these are intended just for the family here at Project Veritas,” he continued. “You know, this is just for us. I recognize that when you send something out to 60 people, but I’m not going to do that today. So, you know, so I just wanted to tell you the truth. So, I’m going to read this and I’m gonna try my best to, you know, speak from the heart. But I did write these words and I wat to tell you what’s going on.”
“So here we go. It’s going to take about 15 minutes to do this,” he said in the more forty four video. “Journalism is reporting things powerful people want kept hidden for the wrong reasons, moral wrongs, bad behaviors. As journalists, were the custodians of the public’s conscience. And as we’ve gone deeper and deeper exposing and illuminating corruption, the lies hidden from public view, the line that separates good and evil becomes more clear.”
“Not just in the institutions we investigate, but within one another,” he continued. “Throughout my 13 years doing this, our mission has evolved from simply being about exposing the truth with some hidden cameras to something more transcendental, giving people hope, right? That’s what we do. And I’m going to stand here ’cause I just feel like I’m filming a video for the audience.”
“And as we ascended into that higher purpose, which I think we all understand, that we have we have suffered through triumphant disaster along the way in a similar fashion to what I wrote about in my book,” he added. “You know, the first chapter was called Suffering. So the line that separates good and evil passes not through the states, nor classes, nor political parties, but right through every single human heart…”
“So that line in the sand becomes more clear the deeper we go in investigating these powerful institutions,” he said. “So over the last over the last few weeks I have felt a lot of despair and a lot of e seen a lot of evil and felt overcome with various emotions over the last few weeks. You could say, I’ve seen glimpses of heaven and hell, of darkness and light, but what I take away from this is the gratitude that I have.”
“For many of you, for most of you, and there is such goodness in so many of you that I have seen, and I am grateful for that,” he went on. “And the generosity and goodwill we have steadily built over the past 13 years with so many people. I’ve received thousands of text messages and phone calls from people all over the world concerned about my wellbeing. But as I was going through this process, I reflected upon my, from any of you, what makes us great is that we do this work because we actually believe in it, right? We actually believe in this. It shocks people that we do, and we have a passion for it.”
“And we have principle, like I know, you know, we don’t sell out,” he said. “I think that’s fair. At least most of us. We have a passion for doing the right thing in a visual way no matter what. That’s what binds us. I know many of you have experienced this despair alongside of me in the last couple weeks. One of you just told me the other day that you’d go work at Walmart at the night shift so that you could do this during the day. That’s what one of you said to me. I believe you, rather than sell out.”
O’Keefe continued to give his farewell speech, relating anecdotes from fellow employees, going all the way back to his time working with Andrew Breitbart.
Earlier on Monday, he resigned as the head of Project Veritas, which he founded as an undercover journalism operation to uncover corruption in American politics.
According to a report by a former employee of Project Veritas, Neil McCabe, James O’Keefe read his resignation letter to his former team and board members at their Mamaroneck, N.Y. headquarters.
Exclusive: @JamesOKeefeIII, my friend and former boss at @Project_Veritas, just read his resignation letter to his former team and board members at their Mamaroneck, N.Y. headquarters. James will make his own way—as he always has before. @OANN pic.twitter.com/knOqtFTw7e
— ReporterMcCabe (@NeilWMcCabe2) February 20, 2023
“James will make his own way—as he always has before,” McCabe added.
James O’Keefe was suspended in early February as CEO of Project Veritas. Earlier reports that he would return as CEO, based on a Project Veritas letter released to the public, proved to be unfounded.
According to an internal message to Project Veritas’ employees sent by the organization’s executive director, Daniel Strack, O’Keefe was taking “a few weeks of well-deserved” paid time off.
Last week, a new letter was submitted to Project Veritas’ board with 25 staffers backing James O’Keefe’s return as CEO.
BREAKING: A new letter has been submitted to the Project Veritas board with 25 staffers signing on in support of James O’Keefe and calling for him to be reinstated as CEO immediately
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) February 16, 2023
O’Keefe’s sudden resignation follows an internal battle between O’Keefe and members of Project Veritas’ advisery board. The battle arose in the aftermath of a highly public battle with the large pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Project Veritas’ ‘bombshell’ video that uncovered a Pfizer executive boasting the pharmaceutical corporation was exploring mutating Covid variants in order to profit off future mRNA “vaccines” is now raising serious concerns in the halls of Congress.
The undercover video has racked up over 30 million views on Twitter:
Almost 20,000,000 views 👀 pic.twitter.com/xaRvlD5qTo
— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) January 28, 2023
Project Veritas announced on Thursday that the letter had prompted senators and house members to query the heads of the Food and Drug Administration, Health and Human Services, and National Institutes of Health.
MUST READ: Members of Congress send joint letter to FDA, NIH, and HHS demanding answers to “troubling claims” made by Pfizer’s Jordon Walker in the #DirectedEvolution video pic.twitter.com/pQSn9yt9Xg
— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) February 16, 2023
The public is already defecting from Project Veritas in droves after James O’Keefe’s announcement he is stepping down. There is no Project Veritas without James O’Keefe, but there certainly will be a James O’Keefe without Project Veritas — and the American public will be eager to see what the veteran investigative journalist does next.
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Source: Becker News Rephrased By: InfoArmed