James O'Keefe: Pfizer whistleblower investigation like a 'spiritual war'
James O'Keefe, a self-described “guerilla journalist” who some have likened to the late Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes" fame, described his work exposing wrongdoing among powerful companies as part of a battle between “good and evil.”
O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas who was forced to resign from the nonprofit after a prolonged conflict with the organization’s board of directors, addressed attendees at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative activists and politicians held at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center outside Washington, D.C. In his speech Saturday, O’Keefe homed in on his recent expose of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
For the last decade, O'Keefe said he's had the ability to carry out investigative operations, partly because he's never accepted advertising dollars to support his work.
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“I’ve never taken advertising dollars” and “no one’s ever told me what to do. No one’s ever told me what not to do,” he said, adding that this fact alone has given him the ability to “expose anybody who needs to be exposed because that’s what journalism is supposed to do: show you the facts, without fear or favor.”
He highlighted how the corporate media relies on Pfizer for advertising dollars and suggested that the business relationship between the company and news organizations prevents mainstream media journalists from conducting investigations into the corporation. O’Keefe played a montage network and cable news show clips from CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” “ABC News Nightline,” “NBC Nightly News,” “CNN Tonight” and ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” all “brought to you by Pfizer.”
The journalist’s investigation into Pfizer involved a conversation between an undercover Project Veritas journalist and a pharmaceutical executive at Pfizer who claimed his company was engaging in efforts to “mutate” the coronavirus to “preemptively” develop new vaccines for potential variants that would arise out of a mutation.
The Pfizer executive also spoke about a “revolving door for all government officials” where “regulators who review our drugs” decide that they want to work for the company down the line.” According to the Pfizer official, “Once they decide they want to go work for the company, they’re not going to be as harsh on the company.”
Undercover video footage collected by Project Veritas also showed the man talking about how coronavirus vaccines served as a “cash cow” for Pfizer. When O’Keefe confronted the Pfizer official, a tense confrontation ensued.
O’Keefe described his confrontation with the Pfizer executive as part of “a spiritual war” and “a fight of good and evil that we’re fighting” that might also qualify as a standoff between “light versus darkness.” He elaborated on the work that went into compiling the Pfizer story: “In order to obtain these things, we need brave people, we need brave whistleblowers, we need people on the inside. There were people on the inside of Pfizer who helped us obtain this.”
After recalling how one of the whistleblowers at Pfizer who helped Project Veritas with the story was a “little reluctant to go public” and was scared for her life after she was taken into a room and “interrogated [and] had a red van go to her home” and harassed, O’Keefe informed the audience that she was “so inspired by the series of events that have occurred over the last three weeks,” including his ouster from Project Veritas, that she “decided to go public with me on this stage right now.”
O’Keefe then introduced the woman, introducing her as “Debbie from Pfizer,” who cited her faith as an influential factor in her decision to assist with an investigation into the corporation.
“I realized that the spirit of fear is not from the Lord and as a believer, I knew that I couldn’t just sit there,” Debbie said, adding: “I couldn’t just sit there and watch people get lied to, people get gaslit. It made me angry.”
“I think we all need to learn to not be fearful. Fear is how the enemy controls us. The reason why our country is going the way it’s going is because of fear. People are willing to give up their freedom and their liberty to feel safe. We can’t do that. Freedom is not free. Freedom comes with a price and sometimes people like me have to make a sacrifice.”
Debbie told others who work for “big tech, media, [or] a government agency” that “it’s your responsibility to stand up.”
“If you don’t say something, they’re going to keep doing it,” she warned. “That’s why we’re where we are today. That’s why they keep doing it.”
Debbie concluded her speech by asking the CPAC audience to “stand up, be brave, [and] do something for this country or else we’re all doomed.”
Following O’Keefe’s departure from Project Veritas, the organization has lost a substantial number of followers on social media. Social Blade, which keeps track of accounts’ social media followers, has recorded a loss of more than 325,000 Twitter followers for Project Veritas following O’Keefe’s Feb. 20 departure from the organization, nearly 25,000 fewer likes on Facebook and lost approximately 130,000 subscribers on YouTube over the past two weeks.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
