A second video was released by Veritas Action Fund yesterday, and it raises questions about whether voters should trust Mark Kelly‘s gun agenda. While many believe that Kelly has been upfront about his stance on guns and gun rights, many others believe that he isn’t forthcoming.
In this second leaked video, Everytown for Gun Safety Data Manager Alan Bederka is recorded talking to a Veritas journalist about Kelly’s gun stance. He states, “[Kelly] just doesn’t make it a main focal point of his campaign. Whereas if he’s, you know, open about his opinions, but doesn’t focus specifically on the ones that are less likely to change people’s minds, there’s a higher probability of him being able to enact the kind of legislation you’re hoping to see enacted, you know?” he explained.
Bederka also admits that the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety and Kelly’s campaign coordinate through hidden messages sent via press releases.
“Press releases is the most common way to do it, like different press releases that get released, you read the other people’s press releases to find out what they’re doing. So then you release your own to tell them what you’re doing,” Bederka explained. “And they kind of read each and work that way.” Bederka went on to explain, “It’s an imperfect system. I mean, I wish we would just give up the ghost and stop pretending that like we aren’t connected, and we have to keep this firewall or whatever, but like, that’s typically how it’s done. It’s like this kind of beat around the bush kind of thing.”
Bederka explains that they operate via press releases because they fear what the NRA would do. “The problem is that if the NRA were to find out, we were doing that, they would make hay out of it. They would take us to court, and they would tear us apart. And it’s not even necessarily that we would lose it’s that the intractable legal battle that would unveil over it,” he stated. “They have a lot more money than we do. They have a lot more power than we do right now, so they would stomp us if we made a mistake like that. It would put everything in jeopardy, which is why we’re so careful not to coordinate.”
James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, recently posted a tweet that shows him talking to Bederka, where he seems to retract some of his statements.
Alan(@Everytown)…Nice to see you…Is this seat taken?#Expose2020 pic.twitter.com/NufnZV6ts8
— Project Veritas Action (@PVeritas_Action) October 7, 2020
According to the Everytown for Gun Safety website, the group’s goal is to “pass gun safety laws, elect candidates who will govern with gun safety in mind, beat the NRA, change how American thinks about gun violence, and end gun violence. According to their data, 71% of gun deaths in Arizona are by suicide, and in an average year, over 1,000 people die by guns in Arizona.
Project Veritas Action is a 501(C)(4) group founded by James O’Keefe. According to their website, their goals are to “investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud and other misconduct.” Other videos this cycle have focused on alleged pay-to-play schemes and ballot harvesting.
