A Bernie Sanders campaign aide dismissed “political gossip” Wednesday after a Project Veritas sting that caught on undercover video a radical field organizer singing the praises of gulags, revolution and reeducation.
Misty Rebik, the Iowa state director for the Sanders campaign, said that Iowans “don’t care about political gossip” in a protected tweet posted by Project Veritas president and self-described guerrilla journalist James O’Keefe.
“The hundreds of thousands of Iowans we’ve talked to this caucus season don’t care about political gossip; they care about making healthcare a human right, taking on climate change, making college affordable, and ending endless wars. That’s our focus,” said Ms. Rebik in the tweet.
Her comment came as the first statement by the Sanders camp since Project Veritas released Tuesday undercover footage showing a man identified as field organizer Kyle Jurek predicting “cities [will] burn” if President Trump is reelected, and the reeducation of Trump voters if Mr. Sanders wins.
NEW: IA State Director for@BernieSanders, @mistyrebik makes statement after Jurek’s incendiary vid. Calls it “POLITICAL GOSSIP”
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) January 15, 2020
Conspriacy to commit violence, praise of Soviet Gulags and saying “there are things more important than the rule of law” is not Gossip.
STAY TUNED. pic.twitter.com/mZEBKygiY3
Project Veritas released a second video Wednesday as part of its #Expose2020 series in which Mr. Jurek called himself an “anarcho-communist” and ticked off the names of other Sanders campaign staffers that he said were “further left than the Democratic Socialists.”
Mr. Jurek also said that some antifa activists were “probably on the Bernie campaign,” and that he thought the Vermont senator was a secret reeducation supporter.
“You’re not going to get Bernie to say ’gulags,’ but like I’m all aboard for gulags,” said Mr. Jurek in the video. “I feel as though there needs to be reeducation for a significant portion of our society. I think he is, too. But you can’t, running for president in the United States, you can’t say anything like that.”
Project Veritas posted footage showing an investigator asking Sanders campaign staffers about Mr. Jurek in the parking lot in front of an Iowa campaign office, but nobody responded.
Project Veritas cited Federal Election Commission records showing that Mr. Jurek has earned about $11,000 in his six months’ work for the Sanders campaign. He was described by a Sanders Iowa director on Twitter as one of the campaign’s “top tier organizers.”
During that time, Mr. Jurek, 38, has been arrested twice in Polk County on drug and intoxication charges, most recently on Jan. 7 for driving while intoxicated, violating probation, and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The Washington Times has reached out for comment to the Sanders campaign. Major presidential primary candidates—Mr. Sanders is seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination—typically employ hundreds of paid staffers.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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