Isis photographed the literature table at the 2006 Robert Taft event James O'Keefe participated in
Previously I reported that right-wing prankster James O’Keefe attended a white nationalist gathering in 2006 that featured speakers known for the racist ideology they have proudly espoused: Jared Taylor and John Derbyshire. I called O’Keefe’s lawyer for a comment but neither he nor O’Keefe would respond. O’Keefe has subsequently admitted that he participated in the event. According to an otherwise fact-challenged post on Breitbart, the website that has paid O’Keefe, O’Keefe said that he “attended the event with many of his Leadership Institute co-workers since it was right across the street from their building in Arlington, Va., and it was organized by other LI associates.”
In fact, a photographer who covered the event told me O’Keefe was helping its chief organizer, Marcus Epstein, and was not an innocent bystander, as he has claimed. But more on that later. First, O’Keefe vs. Breitbart…
Andrew Breitbart, who has paid O’Keefe and attempted to defend him by calling my reporting “FALSE,” has been undermined by O’Keefe himself. O’Keefe concedes my report was true — he was at the event. Breitbart has therefore been contradicted by O’Keefe.
Meanwhile, the apologia Breitbart has commissioned Larry O’Connor to write in defense of O’Keefe is riddled with falsehoods, including that I never called O’Keefe for a comment. In fact, I left a message for his lawyer, Mike Madigan, and heard nothing back — I reported this fact but O’Connor chose to overlook it.
Avowed white nationalist Jared Taylor and O'Keefe pal Marcus Epstein feel the love at their 2006 confab
O’Connor defended Marcus Epstein against charges of racism through deception and deflection. Epstein has indeed been a racist and professional immigrant basher who physically attacked a random black woman he called a “nigger;” who assailed Martin Luther King Jr. as unpatriotic, and who wrote this on VDare, which happens to be a nativist outfit the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a hate site:
“Diversity can be good in moderation — if what is being brought in is desirable,” Epstein wrote in one VDARE.com essay. “Most Americans don’t mind a little ethnic food, some Asian math whizzes, or a few Mariachi dancers — as long as these trends do not overwhelm the dominant culture.”
O’Connor went on to call Jared Taylor “controversial.” So an avowed white nationalist who argues in virtually every public appearance he makes that blacks and Latinos are genetically inferior, is merely “controversial?” Was John Derbyshire, another VDare contributor, “controversial” as well? That’s the Derbyshire who warned that Obama would shut down federal funding of biology because the science supposedly proved whites were genetically superior. (More here). Between O’Keefe, Derbyshire and Taylor, it’s hard to find a racist that Breitbart and his minions won’t defend.
I just spoke to Isis, an independent photographer who covered the event, and who frequently reports on extreme right-wing gatherings in the Washington area. Isis told me she saw O’Keefe seated at a literature table filled with racist tracts (see photograph of table above), and that O’Keefe was actively engaged in the organization of the event (which was promoted on the neo-Nazi chat site Stormfront).
“I saw O’Keefe seated at the literature table,” Isis told me. “He was there and he was supporting the event. It looked like Luke Pelican [my note: Pelican has been a member of the racist hate group MSU YAF] and O’Keefe were helping Marcus Epstein with everything. They were clearly part of his little posse.”
Isis observed that the audience treated Kevin Martin, a black conservative speaker added at the last moment to provide cover for Taylor and Derbyshire, with palpable hostility. “So many of the people in that event were like [racial separatist] Michael Hart; they were the Jared Taylor crowd. And when Kevin Martin was trying to speak you could sense the hostility. Besides, how you are going to have a fair debate with two white supremacists and one black conservative who didn’t even know what he was getting into?”
Isis said she had a long conversation with Martin after the event. “He was not happy at all. He said Epstein told him to dress down and dress casual. And the other two speakers were in suits, looking like two professional white guys and poor Kevin, he was totally set up. Jared Taylor spent the whole time talking about statistics about racial differences and how blacks were less intelligent. He said it in front of Kevin,who was freaked out.”
“I’d like to know if Leadership was supporting the Robert Taft Club because all the Leadership interns were all there like a little posse helping Marcus out with his club,” Isis added.
Lady Liberty’s Lamp has more.
Now, here is a question Breitbart: Why are you paying and defending a racist?
And for O’Keefe: Since you are publicly discussing your participation in the Robert Taft event with Jared Taylor, John Derbyshire, and Marcus Epstein, can you explain why were you there? And why didn’t you leave when you heard Taylor insist blacks were genetically inferior, or when racist literature was offered for sale on the literature table? Or did you place it there?
So you’ve now totally backed off your earlier claim that he not only attended this event but was one of the organizers? Where did that come from?
Thanks for the reporting, Max. It gets creepier by the day. I knew guys like these in college 20 years ago. They were middle class white kids like me who seemed okay until, after a few months of knowing them and talking to them about the world about, they slowly morphed into these ugly, crypto-fascist god boys with big smiles who secretly hated almost everything. And many of them inherited it from Daddy.
You wrote about me on your pages today.
You said that I am a racist sympathizer and that I defend racists.
This is libel.
I demand an immediate and strong retraction and apology or further action will follow.
Here are the details:
You wrote: “O’Connor went on to defend Marcus Epstein against charges of racism — another lie.”
Fact: This is completely false. I did not defend Epstein in any way whatsoever. I never even mentioned Epstein’s name. I made one statement about Epstein: “The organizer who is being called a “White Supremacist” is half Jewish and half Korean.”
That is not a defense; it is a legitimate fact that draws the accusation of “White Supremacist” into greater context. When Salon states that I “went on to defend Marcus Epstein against charges of racism” they are lying. I expect you to fix it immediately.
You wrote: “Between O’Keefe, Derbyshire and Taylor, it’s hard to find a racist that Breitbart and his minions won’t defend.”
Response: My post never mentions Derbyshire. My mention of Epstein does not use his name, but is detailed above in. My mentions of Taylor are as follows:
The forum had as one of its three speakers a controversial figure, Jared Taylor, with a track record of making racist statements. He was being debated by two other people including Mr. Martin (taking issue with the racist figure). Mr. Taylor has also appeared with Phil Donohue, Queen Latifa and Paula Zahn on their TV shows to debate race. Are the audience members of the Donohue show racist for sitting and watching that debate?
As can clearly be seen, my mentions of Taylor call him controversial, attribute racist statements to him, and actually label him as a racist. If there is an implied defense of anyone, it is of those who attend debates where Taylor is speaking. There is no defense of any racist or any racist behavior or any racist remarks.
http://washingtonindependent.com/75770/the-organizer-of-the-2006-race-and-conservatism-debate-speaks
From Washington Independent: “Epstein stood by the content of the event, describing it (accurately, in my view) as a debate, not a forum for Taylor. ”
“The literature table that has attracted so much attention was not, he said, set up by the Taft Club. Much of the 40-odd member audience was composed of LI interns and staffers who’d heard about the event at work.”
“I met James O’Keefe a number of times. It’s the Beltway — it’s a small circle. It’s the conservative movement. But he did not collaborate with me, definitely not on that event.” – Marcus Epstein, organizer of the event.
@Stage Right: Quitcherbitchin’.
In the words of the other Roger Ailes, “Epstein’s ‘mistake’ was hitting an African-American woman IN THE HEAD while shouting racist slurs at her. He was convicted of the crime. If you’re going to let Bay Buchanan’s rent boy lie about his history, please point out the facts. Don’t just link. Some people might think that Epstein’s promotion of the vile bigot Taylor was also a ‘mistake.’ The little prick should be in jail, not whining to you about how he’s been smeared.”
He’s your boy now, and Andrew “O’Keefe’s Pimp” Breitbart’s boy too — whether you like it or not. You’ll just have to live with it, you courageous defender of America’s dirty little secret, the racism that many conservatives still wear as if it were a badge of honor.
Your intentional, clearly demonstrable mangling of the facts concerning O’Keefe makes you just about the last person who should be demanding an apology for so-called “libel” — which is sure to be laughed out of court anyway, you knuckledragging thug.
@Bryan Always resort to name-calling. Always. It really reinforces your argument and persuades people who are in the middle.
Show me where I defended Epstein.
Show me where I defended Taylor.
Show me.
You defended Epstein in your statement that you quoted above : “The organizer who is being called a “White Supremacist” is half Jewish and half Korean.”
Clearly you are trying to make the charge of racism seem silly by pointing out the mixed race background of Epstein. His actions and statements are not so silly though, and extremist politics makes for strange bedfellows.
I wouldn’t say you “defended” Taylor myself, but you certainly downplayed how noxious he is, which is a lousy thing to do anyway. The guy is racist scum.
“@Bryan Always resort to name-calling.”
Especially when it accurately describes and characterizes you.
Andrew Breitbart is O’Keefe’s pimp. And, I would add, yours.
And you are a thug. The company you keep speaks to that. But you’re also a coward, given your whining about so-called “libel” — especially when the preponderance of facts reinforces thuggishness from your camp. The knuckledragging is figurative.
“[P]ersuades people who are in the middle” — riiiight, lots of people in the middle are navigating to this page. And Hillary Clinton had Vince Foster killed.
“Show me where I defended Epstein. Show me where I defended Taylor.” palmtree pretty well covered that, especially with respect to African-American hater Epstein. And trying to whitewash Taylor is de facto defense.
Now go back to fluffing… er, spinning for Breitbart. It’s really, really helping things.
Sorry, Max, but your reporting on this story stinks. Even the Washington Independent is running from it.
http://washingtonindependent.com/75861/conservative-media-mogul-plays-defense-on-racism-story
SC Charlie I see them affirming everything Blumenthal has reported. WTF? You just type up a lie and hope no one reads the fucking link?
And I love this guy flipping out about being called on his apologia. The modern racist is nothing, if not cowardly. Where is the courage of their convictions.
Losers, all of them.
Sorry, weezie, click on the following link ………….. perhaps it all might begin to soak in: http://washingtonindependent.com/75851/clarification-and-mea-culpa-on-james-okeefe-and-race-and-conservatism
This is all just another attempt to smear O’Keefe, again. Charles Johnson of littlegreenfootballs is backing off his posting on this subject.
http://bigjournalism.com/retracto/2010/02/05/retraction-requests-charles-johnson-little-green-footballs/
What it boils down to is that this get together in 2006 was a debate between two opposing sides, that was not put together by O’Keefe. And, O’Keefe did not man any table handing out racist literature.
Honey you don’t need to “smear” O’Keefe. He is a loser and we only need wait while his pathetic past catches up with him. Then we point and laugh. Rinse, repeat.
See the truth about the scum bag Max Blumenthal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5TOJt6YmQg