Project Veritas leader O’Keefe loses position at right-wing group
MAMARONECK, N.Y. — Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe said in a speech posted online Monday that he has been removed as the right-wing group’s leader.
In remarks that appeared to have been made at a Project Veritas’ office, O’Keefe said the board had stripped him of all decision-making.
The move comes after the board reportedly put him on leave from his role as chairman amid complaints about his treatment of staff at the organization, which is known for using hidden cameras and hiding identities to try to ensnare journalists in embarrassing conversations and to reveal supposed liberal bias.
“So currently, I have no job at Project Veritas,” O’Keefe said in the video. “I have no position here based upon what the board has done. So I’m announcing to you all that today on Presidents Day, I’m packing up my personal belongings.”
Messages seeking comment were left with O’Keefe, the group’s executive director, and attorneys for Project Veritas as well as other officials with the organization, based in Mamaroneck, New York.
O’Keefe, who wiped away tears in his remarks, said several times that the nearly 45-minute speech was for staff internally, but it was posted on the Vimeo platform.
The announcement comes after the group’s executive director and several board members put out a statement last week saying that “a number of our staff members provided leadership with some verbal feedback describing real management concerns regarding the treatment of people and our internal processes.”
Neither Project Veritas nor any staffers have been charged with a crime, and the group has said its activities were protected by the First Amendment.
CNN’s Lemon off Monday:
Amid ongoing criticism over his comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Don Lemon was absent Monday from “CNN This Morning.” Co-host Poppy Harlow told viewers that “Don has the day off.”
Lemon has not been on the air since Thursday, when during a discussion on “CNN This Morning” about the ages of politicians he said that Haley, 51, was not “in her prime.”
A woman, he said, was considered in her prime “in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.”
Challenged by Harlow, Lemon added: “Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just saying what the facts are.”
Lemon has since apologized, but he has been widely condemned, including by CNN CEO Chris Licht. According to The New York Times, Licht chastised Lemon during an editorial call Friday, saying his remarks were “upsetting, unacceptable and unfair” and a “huge distraction.”
A CNN spokesperson had no comment on whether Lemon would be back Tuesday.
Israeli settlements: Israel has told the Biden administration it will rein in the approval of new West Bank settlement outposts, the prime minister’s office said Monday, a day after a potential diplomatic crisis was averted at the United Nations over Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not greenlight any
new wildcat settlements in the West Bank beyond nine such outposts built without authorization that it approved retroactively earlier this month. The statement, however, made no mention of the thousands of additional settlement homes in existing settlements officials say are to be approved soon.
A contentious U.N. Security Council resolution pushed by the Palestinians and their supporters slated for Monday would have condemned Israel for settlement expansion and demanded a halt to future activity. According to multiple diplomats, the Biden administration managed to forestall the vote by convincing Israel and the Palestinians to agree in principle to a six-month freeze in any unilateral action they might take.
“Israel notified the U.S. that in the coming months it will not authorize new settlements beyond the nine that have already been approved,” Netanyahu’s
office said.
The Security Council unanimously approved the watered-down statement Monday.
Bishop shooting: A suspect has been arrested in the killing of a Catholic bishop fatally shot over the weekend in Southern California in a crime that shocked the Los Angeles religious and immigrant communities, authorities said Monday.
The person was arrested in the killing of Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, who was found in his home with a gunshot wound and declared dead at the scene, Los Angeles Sheriff ’s Deputy Lizette Falcon said.
O’Connell, 69, was killed just blocks from the St. John Vianney Catholic Church, part of his archdiocese, in Hacienda Heights, an unincorporated community about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
O’Connell was found around 1 p.m. Saturday with a gunshot wound. Sheriff ’s deputies were called to the
area for a report of a medical emergency. Authorities have not said whether the bishop was targeted or if his religion might have been a factor. Cyclone threat: A cyclone, which is intensifying as it approaches the southeastern African coast, has been labeled as “dangerous” by the U.N.’s weather agency Monday.
Cyclone Freddy is projected to reach Madagascar on Tuesday and hurtle toward Mozambique by the end of the week. The tropical cyclone is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane and is expected to dump heavy rain and bring turbulent winds.
A “significant deterioration in weather conditions” is underway, Meteo France’s early warning system predicted Monday. The weather agency said the cyclone is passing 60 miles from the islands of Mauritius and later Reunion on Monday.
Mauritius has encountered significant flooding
and gale-force winds.
Attack on Burkina Faso:
The death toll from a jihadi attack on a Burkina Faso army unit in the north of the country last week has risen to 51, military officials said Monday, after 43 new bodies were found.
The military unit was ambushed in the Sahel region’s Oudalan province, between the towns of Deou and Oursi, the Burkinabe military said. Reinforcements have been sent to the area and a number of wounded have been taken to hospital.
The West African nation has been wracked for seven years by violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, which has killed thousands, displaced nearly 2 million people and caused a humanitarian crisis.
Successive governments’ failure to effectively address the problem led to two coups last year, with each military leader vowing to stem attacks and secure the country, albeit with little success.