Blog: Breitbart trying to ‘blackmail’ Dems with more ACORN tapes

By David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Friday, November 20th, 2009 -- 11:04 am
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acornvideoscreenshot Blog: Breitbart trying to blackmail Dems with more ACORN tapesFilmmakers James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles have released new tapes of their anti-ACORN sting operation which appear to show an ACORN employee cheerfully counseling them on how to run a prostitution ring with underage girls and launder the proceeds into a campaign for Congress.

The two appeared with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday, along with conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, who distributed their earlier sting tapes at his BigGovernment.com website. All three are targets of an ACORN lawsuit in Maryland alleging "illegal videotaping."

In an entry headed "Andrew Breitbart Trying To Blackmail The Obama Administration," Newshounds notes, "Judging from the very edited video Breitbart presented last night, one suspects that the real reason it was withheld was because it did little to effectively incriminate ACORN. Breitbart, on the other hand, incriminated himself even worse. Near the end of the segment, he told Hannity that he had more videos and 'not just ACORN' that he threatened to release during the 2010 election cycle unless the Department of Justice opened a federal investigation into ACORN."

Breitbart appeared to be particularly furious about an investigation by the office of California Attorney General Jerry Brown, which was opened in response to a request from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger but which Breitbart sees as tied to Brown's own interest in running for governor. He complained that neither Congress nor Attorney General Eric Holder has shown any interest in launching a full investigation of ACORN, accused the Democrats of "hypocrisy," and threatened to use still unreleased tapes as ammunition against Democratic candidates.

"Congress didn't come in to investigate them," Breitbart said somewhat incoherently, "obviously not the Attorney General's office, and they've now realized, 'Let's get back into business,' because they've realized that the dust settled and they were not being investigated. It was Hannah and James and me who were being investigated. That's why we've been forced to offer this latest tape."

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Breitbart's charges are likely to find a receptive audience among Republicans, a majority of whom -- according to one poll -- already believe that ACORN stole the 2008 presidential election for Barack Obama.

In a breathtaking attempt to use the O'Keefe-Giles tapes to put pressure on the Obama administration, Breitbart announced, "Not only are there more tapes, it's not just ACORN. And this message is to Attorney General Holder. ... We're going to hold out until the next election cycle -- or else, if you want to do a clean investigation, we will give you the rest of what we have, we will comply with you, we will give you the documentation we have from countless ACORN whistleblowers who want to come forward but are fearful of this organization and the retribution -- that they fear that this is a dangerous organization."

"So if you will get into an investigation," Breitbart concluded, "we will give you the tapes, and if you don't give us the tapes [sic], we will revisit these tapes come election time."

According to Newshounds, "Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines 'blackmail' as 'extortion or coercion by threats especially of public exposure or criminal prosecution.'" That would appear to cover Breitbart's explicit threat directed to Attorney General Holder.

(via Newshounds)

This video is from Fox News' Hannity, broadcast Nov. 19, 2009.



Download video via RawReplay.com

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Story comments are below...

  • Jerry
    People need to look into and understand the history of ACORN. Their history of advocacy for the working class and underclass and their continued fight in the struggle to end poverty and to bring dignity to all Americans is the reason these blowhards are looking for investigations. This has nothing to do with a couple of misguided or rogue employees of ACORN. ACORN is simply target one of the right wing agenda to combat those organizations and individuals that would stand against the corporatization of America. ACORN as well as so many other organizations that stand up for the majority of Americans need support to get through these attacks, to survive and to be able to continue their fight for social justice
  • damixaustex
    Here, here.

    It's only part of their mission, but Acorn brought a million voters to the polls in 08, probably for Obama, and that scared the daylights out of a lot of people.
    So called conservatives get all riled up when you try to make sure everybody votes.

    The elitist label is misapplied.
    To me, elitist means you think some people aren't worthy of casting a vote.
  • morepatience
    Some people aren't. Like those who vote in districts they don't live in, or those who vote for recently deceased relatives via absentee ballots, or in certain states, those who are unable to show a state provided ID (which is provided free or steeply discounted in said states), or worse, those who just outright submit multiple fake/illegal registrations. Every legitimate vote should SHOULD be counted, once. Regardless of who they vote for.
  • damixaustex
    All people should be able to vote once.

    The election rules should be more flexible for people who move around and those who don't have an ID.
  • Kazr
    Typical right wing loon canard. There has never been any voter fraud associated with ACORN zero...nada. But don't let facts get in the way. Simply restate lies over and over . The Repubs simply object to the fact that ACORN was effective in registering a lot of poor people most not inclined to vote for the these scum anyway.
  • Darlena1956
    They destroyed the registrations of people that weren't going to vote for Obama. A lot of people showed up to vote at the polls and were told they weren't registered eventhough they registed w/acorn.
  • morepatience
    Did someone with ACORN type that for you?
  • bastonal1
    This clown is an absolute joke....He has NOTHING! Just another slimy republican oinking pig!
  • mcquaidLA
    Andrew Breitbart gets very, very angry when poor people and black and brown people get help. After all, mediocre white guys have a really tough time of it...
  • morepatience
    Oh please...
  • Darlena1956
    Stop playing the race card. Get help? Is getting help bringing in illegal 13-15 year old girls from other countries for prostitution considered helping poor people? Use your brain.
  • mcquaidLA
    Use YOUR brain! In all but two "stings" the "pimps" were either thrown out of ACORN's office or the police were called. It's always good to weed out incompetent people, but the fact that Breitbart is trying to turn this into a conservative cause celebre should tell you that it's another cheap shot in the War on the Poor. I'd like to see the same vigor applied to investigating why big government defense contractors who ROUTINELY defraud the American taxpayer for BILLIONS are never put out of business.
  • Darlena1956
    It's time to clean up washington. Bring everything out in the open. This is my tax money going to these groups. With the economy in the shape it is in you better believe the american people are ANGRY. You are wrong with your "facts" about ACORN. ACORN is not about helping the poor. How long has the WAR on Poverty been going on?
  • Zgirl06
    Million-dollar embezzlement; voter registration fraud; advising on illegal activities. Not a great track record. Seeing that I pay taxes - unlike over 40% of Americans - I would prefer to keep every penny of my tax dollars away from this organization.
    Racism exists, but it is extremely WEAK to say that the these "attacks" on Acorn are all about racism. If they were not doing anything wrong to begin with, what would there be to attack?
  • tootiredoftheright
    The Salvation Army has had far more incidents of embezzlement. Numerous gov't contractors have embezzeled the gov't out of billions of dollars but since they pay a number of congress people in particular Republicans no investigations were done nor those contractors banned from having further business with the gov't.

    See Acorn doesn't pay Republican congresspeople anything.
  • carbolaw
    Embezzlement and the voter registration issue are actually employee crimes against the organization. People have some major misconception of the voter registration issue. In essence, ACORN employees were paid per person that they registered, they padded their rolls with fictitious people to make more money. There was no way that the fictitious people could have shown up to vote because they did not exist. Further as soon as ACORN the organization became aware of the irregularities, they reported them. Finally, if you want to talk about advising on illegal activities there are many bigger and "better" organizations to go after. The only problem is most of these specialize in the white collar crime variety and have big powerful lobbyists on their payrolls. There is no doubt on my mind that the attacks on ACORN are purely politically motivated. It is not just a race issue, it is a class issue.
  • morepatience
    By ACORN paying their employees per registration they knew they were going to get no small number of fraudulent submissions. Assuming that the fictitious couldn't 'show up to vote' is very naive and only at best applicable to the most egregious and obvious cases of fraud. That line of thinking also seems to disregard the whole notion of mail in/absentee ballots. ACORN has failed on numerous occasions in court to show that they actively purged fraudulent registrations before being spurred on by the threat of investigations. They certainly don't clean their own house until they face a losing fight in court. Yes, there are plenty of other organizations to 'go after', but only in addition to organizations like ACORN that cancel out legitimate votes, not instead of. The attacks aren't entirely political considering that various states and counties have been trying to clean them up for over a decade. This is neither a race nor class issue as you presume, it's simply a matter of making sure that legitimate votes count and those that don't meet even the most basic of legal thresholds don't.

    I did it again, I keep hitting 'Like' while meaning to hit 'Reply'. One day I'll get this Disqus system down.
  • damixaustex
    Bullshit, the attacks are entirely political and racist, otherwise there would be an entirely different discussion centered on updating the voting rules to better meet the needs of the people Acorn serves.
    Instead, people like you want to do everything in their power to stop organizations that seek 100% voter turnout.
  • Darlena1956
    Political and Racist? I think not 100 percent voter turnout for the ones that voted for Obama. They threw away the registrations of people that weren't going to vote for Obama. That is how Obama won.
  • Schmice
    "I did it again...." because you're a low grade moron.
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