 I think that most people by now acknowledge the fact that Project Veritas is not to be taken seriously because this is quite literally a fake news organization. They deceptively edit videos, they take people out of context, and oftentimes they pay people to say things to reporters to set them up, to entrap them. And they've been busted numerous times. But yet, you know, if you stumble upon one of their videos and you don't know about James O'Keeffe's history as a fraud and a huckster, it does look relatively persuasive and incriminating. So it still does dupe a lot of people, even if more and more individuals are becoming privy to the fact that this organization is not to be taken seriously. I mean, James O'Keeffe is someone who barely has any more credibility than Alex Jones. So you know, if you are a reasonable person and you learn about them, then you don't take them seriously. These are the people responsible for the 2015 Planned Parenthood video where executives were reportedly excitedly selling off parts of fetuses for personal gain on top of that. When Roy Moore had multiple women come out and accuse him of sexual assault, they tried to defend Roy Moore by paying someone to take a story to the Washington Post and say that Roy Moore sexually assaulted them so that way if the Washington Post takes the bait, they can then say, aha, they ran with this story and it turned out to be fake. I guess that means we should question all of the other allegations that Roy Moore's other accusers brought forward too. So this is what they do. They have no integrity and they just did this again with regard to Ilhan O'Helmar where they tried to make it seem as if she was part of some intricate ballot harvesting scheme to buy off votes and this, of course, unsurprisingly, was also revealed to be a fraud. They paid someone off to say what they wanted to. But I don't know if the million plus people that saw this video are going to know that this was fraudulent. The president of the United States already shared it so the damage has been done and let me just explain before we get to why this story in particular is fraudulent, how damaging this is to Ilhan O'Helmar who repeatedly receives death threats. The president is screaming at the top of his lungs about voter fraud and Ilhan O'Helmar is already a target of the right. So this video puts her in danger directly because you're saying, hey, voter fraud is an issue and she's the one who's perpetuating it. Look at this. Somebody is buying ballots or collecting ballots on her behalf. This is fraud. Don't you care about democracy? You should be concerned with this. So they work people up into a frenzy and they do it by deceiving them, by lying to them. As a journalist, the Fox nine explains. Liban Osman, subject of Project Veritas alleged voter fraud story, tells Tom Leiden of Fox nine. He was offered $10,000 by Omar Jamal to say he was collecting ballots for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Omar Jamal was Project Veritas insider in the Somali community. Now this report explains in his first interview, Liban Osman tells the Fox nine investigators he was offered $10,000 by community activist Omar Jamal to say he was collecting ballots for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Quote, he was setting me up, said Liban Osman. It is clear from the raw video obtained by Fox nine that Liban Osman was working for his brother's campaign. Liban Osman admits the Project Veritas video footage looks incriminating, but he said the group deliberately left the full context on the cutting room floor. Project Veritas used two separate videos he posted on Snapchat, while driving in his car to make it appear as if he was illegally picking up ballots and offering money for votes, he said. In a video from July, Liban Osman said he was collecting mail-in ballots from sick and elderly voters who had requested them through the campaign. Now I don't remember if in that video he said that he had 200 ballots or Project Veritas said that he had 200 ballots, but he said that in actuality he had like 20 ballots, which sounds reasonable if people are reaching out to the campaign to get them to collect their ballots. So the story, of course, fell apart and was proven to be fake. But that didn't stop Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from signal boosting Project Veritas and promoting this story, tweeting out, Project Veritas offers further evidence of the need to ban ballot harvesting. It's not a partisan issue. It's been abused to help both Republicans and Democratic candidates, including in North Carolina and California. Please help by telling your congressional representative to pass a bipartisan bill, HR 8285. So first of all, I would argue that this is not a bipartisan bill because of the four cosponsors that this legislation has, all of them are Republicans. Second of all, you have a member of Congress propping up Project Veritas. She should know better, but she propped up this literal fake news organization who propagated this smear of Ilhan Omar that could have endangered her. And she did all of this to promote her bill on ballot harvesting, so-called ballot harvesting. First of all, we shouldn't call it ballot harvesting because if we do that, we're just buying into the right wing framing and they're using their terminology, which benefits them. This is ballot collecting. And guess what? It's not a scandal. It's necessary unless you want to disenfranchise potentially millions of sick and elderly people who are not able to drop off their own ballots. If you can't walk, if you can't drive and you don't have anyone close to you who's able to actually turn in your ballot for you, you rely on campaigns to do this for you. It's not that big of a deal. Have there been instances where this has been abused? Yes, and actually Republicans are the ones, ironically, who've done this as they scream about voter fraud, at least in North Carolina. But I mean, this is something that states are already regulating. In North Carolina, you can only have a close relative turn in your ballot, but in 26 other states, it is lawful for someone who isn't a family member to collect your ballot. But I mean, if you just outright ban ballot collecting and you say, no, you have to turn in your ballot yourself, I don't care about the circumstances, this isn't good for democracy. This is worse for democracy. Because had my dad lived in a state where we didn't have mail-in voting to where you can just put your ballot in your own mailbox, this would have disenfranchised someone like him who couldn't walk, who couldn't drive. So if they want to vote and they give us the ballot to drop off for them, the state is going to determine whether or not that's lawful. If you just ban it nationally, that's going to do more harm than good. Now, maybe it's the case that Tulsi Gabbard is anticipating these types of situations where an elderly person needs someone to drop off the ballot for them. But I don't know because we don't have the text of this bill. If you go to the website where it talks about this legislation, there is no summary. So she literally just wants a blanket ban on so-called ballot harvesting when, no, voter fraud is not an issue. Voter fraud is statistically insignificant, but do you want to know what is an issue if you care about election integrity? Voter suppression, illegal voter purges, removing polling stations from communities of color, making it more difficult for them to vote. That is what you should be concerned with, not ballot collecting, which has been a thing always, which states have regulated individually, like this is a non-issue. And I don't understand why at a time when the president of the United States is trying to get everyone to think that Democrats are going to cheat and widespread voter fraud is a thing, a member of the Democratic Party would want to lend credence to his bogus claim. So I mean, I was disappointed in Tulsi once again, not just for propping up Project Veritas because I feel like she should know better, but for making a bigger issue out of ballot collecting than it is, this isn't something that you should be concerned with if you care about election integrity. To the extent that it's an issue, it's not a big enough issue to where it's going to sway the outcome of a national election in the way that voter suppression might in swing states, for example. I mean, this is unnecessary to just blanket ban all ballot collecting. But Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seemed to agree with me and she actually tweeted out, Tulsi Gabbard, you along with everyone else who amplified this fraudulent story owe Representative Omar a public apology. Ilhan Omar then responded saying, thank you, Alex. Lack of integrity from these folks is astonishing. Tulsi Gabbard then responded to them saying AOC and Ilhan Omar, the issue is not about any of us. It's about voter harvesting. Ilhan, I apologize for referencing the PV story as an example without thoroughly betting it. Now, will you support HR8285 to get rid of voter harvesting, which undermines our democracy? If not, why not? So first of all, I do actually respect her for apologizing. However, I explained in a quote tweet to her why ballot harvesting isn't actually a big deal. And if you truly care about strengthening our democracy, voter suppression should be your number one issue. And she literally unfollowed me for that tweet. I kid you not. So apparently she isn't open to listening to what people have to say about ballot harvesting. When we're telling you you're helping Donald Trump with his narrative, and this isn't really that serious of an issue, I don't understand it because like, here's the thing, she is retiring from Congress. She chose to not seek reelection because she was running for president. She wanted to focus on that and that's fine. So you have what, a month or two left in Congress. Why are you making this your lasting legacy when you actually do have good legislation? She is sponsoring a bill that would pardon Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. Wouldn't you be championing this over ballot harvesting? I mean, I don't understand why this is the thing that you're focusing your energy on. And I mean, there are so many important things that we can do to strengthen our democracy. You can opt for electoral reform. Tulsi Gebert has not sponsored HR4000, which would move us to rank choice voting and gerrymandering, get rid of our majoritarian electoral system. She hasn't co-sponsored this. That would help make our elections more democratic. There are things you can do if you truly care about election integrity. This is not one of them. But I mean, if you are going out and you just want something to be your lasting legacy, why wouldn't you put your bill to pardon Assange and Snowden front and center? Why focus on this and make such a big deal out of it? Especially when it's not a big deal in actuality. And you know it helps Donald Trump with his voter fraud narrative. Like why do this? Like I don't get it, it's perplexing. And apparently she doesn't want to engage hence why she decided to unfollow me. But I mean, she didn't want to come on my program back when I had legitimate questions about her campaign. And you know, some of her positions. She said she did. Oh, I'd love to come on your show, Mike. And then I never heard back from her once they asked for the topics and I sent them the list. Apparently some things are just, she doesn't want to be questioned or challenged. And that's fine. Look, you're on your way out. You're not going to be a member of Congress next year. So I get it. You know, it doesn't necessarily matter. You don't have to explain yourself to anybody. But if you genuinely care about election integrity, like this is baffling to me. You know, you know this, you know this thing. You're getting nervous, man.