Hannah Giles Explains Those Pimp and Prostitute Outfits

Created: February 19, 2010 13:04 | Last updated: July 31, 2020 00:00

I caught up with Hannah Giles, co-star of the ACORN sting videos, after she accepted one of 10 “Buckley Awards” handed out in the XPAC lounge for young conservative leaders. Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack and FreedomWorks organizer Brendan Steinhauser were among the winners, but no one attracted as much attention as Giles, who was approached every two or three minutes by photograph-seekers.

“This was terrifying at first, being here,” said Giles, who was sporting black pumps, a black top, and a black-and-pink miniskirt as she walked through the conference halls. Was she getting used to the attention? “Nope! I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”

I asked Giles about a criticism that’s often been leveled against them — that they hyped up the video by wearing outrageous clothes in promotional materials and the videos’ introductions that they didn’t wear in the actual stings.

“We never claimed that he went in with a pimp costume,” said Giles. “That was b-roll. It was purely b-roll. He was a pimp, I was a prostitute, and we were walking in front of government buildings to show how the government was whoring out the American people.”

What’s Giles working on now? “I’m working on some stories, doing research — you’ll see,” said Giles. She’ll be working with text, not video.