Planned Parenthood Tried to Protect Pro-Abortion Claire McCaskill By Keeping Its Donations Secret

Opinion   |   Tony Perkins   |   Oct 19, 2018   |   3:35PM   |   Washington, DC

To most people, it seemed odd when Planned Parenthood released its first round of campaign spending back in March, and Missouri wasn’t on it. After all, Senator Claire McCaskill (D) is a woman, she’s pro-abortion, and Planned Parenthood was one of her biggest supporters when she won the seat in 2012. “Either McCaskill is a lost cause,” reporters speculated, or something else is going on. Turns out, there’s plenty going on. And thanks to Project Veritas, voters have a front-row seat.

Maybe, the Washington Examiner said at the time, “Planned Parenthood is keeping its distance to protect McCaskill… whose voters may be less inclined to support lawmakers affiliated with the controversial organization.” Well, Planned Parenthood may be keeping its distance publicly, but according to campaign staff, the financial support never stopped. They just moved it off the books and behind the scenes, where voters in Missouri would never know. In a new video from James O’Keefe, voters are finding out that gun control isn’t the only thing their senator’s lying about.

In the latest undercover footage, McCaskill’s staff admits that while “Planned Parenthood refuses to directly support her campaign in order to help her keep up her moderate image among pro-life Democrats, they still donate through other covert means in order to support her campaign.” In Wednesday’s video, the senator’s employees tell Project Veritas’s journalist that Planned Parenthood donates to “outside groups that funnel support to Ms. McCaskill, instead of supporting her directly.”

Nicholas Starost, a campaign staffer, explains that the country’s biggest abortion business, “go[es] through other means to get us that money.” It’s a well-orchestrated scheme, he says giddily. “It’s f***ing beautiful. It’s great when it works for us and not against us, let’s be honest.” Another McCaskill operative, Darcy Becker, chimes in. “It’s not that they don’t support Claire, it’s because they know it’s a tough state to win for a Democrat. Even some moderate Democrats are pro-life,” she explains, “and even those Republicans that are going to vote for Claire because they’re pretty moderate, she could lose them if Planned Parenthood donated money to her.” Watch the exchange for yourself below.

And that’s not all. Her staff admits that — contrary to what she tells pro-life Democrats — McCaskill is “100 percent pro-abortion.” So she’s openly lying about her position? “Yeah, I think it’s like a tactic to… try to get the moderate voters.” Now, 24 hours into this latest PR disaster, McCaskill headquarters is scrambling. In a desperate attempt to take the heat off, the senator is demanding an investigation. But into what?

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Good question. On last night’s “Washington Watch,” James couldn’t believe the ridiculousness of McCaskill’s reaction. “She says we’ve committed fraud. I don’t know what that means by recording the folks. I’m committing fraud by recording what they’ve said? I think the real fraud is the bait-and-switch when the worker for her says that moderate voters are going to have to ‘get over it’ after they impeach Trump. After they do what they are not supposed to do — and what they told voters they would not do. That to me is a better example of fraud — lying to the constituents. Our cameras just recorded it.”

As if that weren’t pathetic enough, the McCaskill camp is also going after opponent (and Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley) for somehow infiltrating her office. That’s interesting, James told me, since “I’ve never met her opponent. I’ve never talked to the attorney general of Missouri… [but] she’s on defense because this video shows her staffers saying that one has to mislead moderate voters in order to get elected in a state like Missouri.”

For his part, Hawley is pushing back — and hard. “Let’s review last 24 hrs,” he tweeted. “1) @clairecmc & staff caught on tape telling the truth 2) McCaskill accuses ME of fraud 3) McCaskill demands Missouri give her special prosecutor to investigate her truth telling. Senator, accusing people of crimes is a serious thing. If you have evidence of a crime, please come forward with it immediately. Otherwise, please stop politicizing the legal process for your reelection.”

On the show last night, I asked James why he thought McCaskill and her staff would be comfortable enough to admit they’re dishonest. “Part of it is hubris… ” he explained. “Because the media doesn’t hold any of these red state Democrats accountable, a lot of these guys inside the office were quite open about the deceptions. And it wasn’t just one of them. Each and every staffer we met had a different type of deception.” Let’s face it, he said, “It didn’t take a tremendous amount of espionage for me to do this. I just had to walk in and ask questions and get responses, which is what journalists are supposed to do.”

The unmasking of McCaskill’s campaign reveals a lot more than the deception and potential violation of campaign finance laws. It shows that many in the Democrat Party realize their pro-abortion, anti-God, anti-family, and anti-gun agenda is out of step with the majority of American voters. We can’t allow that dishonesty to prevail — take the pledge to Pray — Vote — Stand!

LifeNews Note: Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council.