In the latest sting from conservative video activist James O’Keefe, campaign staffers for Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes are caught on camera admitting the Senate hopeful is “lying” to voters about her support for the Kentucky coal industry.
Undercover reporters from O’Keefe’s “Project Veritas” organization visited Grimes campaign offices and Democratic-party headquarters in Kentucky, posing as anti-coal environmentalists. Hidden cameras caught staffers explaining that Grimes doesn’t really support Kentucky’s robust coal industry, and is instead seeking to blur the lines between herself and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a state deeply hostile to President Obama and his environmental agenda.
“You know she has to say that,” said Juanita Rodriguez, a Warren County Democratic operative. “Because in Kentucky if you don’t support the coal industry, you are dead . . . It’s a lying game, unfortunately.”
“If we can get her elected, do you think she is going to do the right thing and she’s gonna try to wipe out that coal industry and go for better resources?” one of the reporters asked Fayette County Democratic Committee member Gina Bess.
“I absolutely think she is,” Bess replied.
Grimes campaign staff also admitted their candidate’s double-speak on coal. “She’s trying to get votes, in that sense, from parts of Kentucky that that’s appealing to,” said field organizer Chase Sanders. “But once she gets in she’s going to be very realistic about the fact that there are environmental problems and she will do her part, you know, in a sense, to support those things.”
The McConnell campaign pounced on the new revelations. “The level of deception that Alison Grimes and her campaign engages in to appear pro-coal despite virulent opposition is both disturbing and dangerous,” spokeswoman Allison Moore wrote in a statement.
The Grimes campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Via the Washington Free Beacon.