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Campaign Staff: Planned Parenthood Doesn’t Directly “donate to Claire because they don’t want to ostracize pro-life Democrats in Missouri”

McCaskill Staff Confirms Planned Parenthood Still Contributes: “They put it through different organizations.”

Senator McCaskill Will “100%” Support Abortion, Is “very pro-choice” But Doesn’t Want to Appear “too far left to get the moderate voters.”

Staffer Agrees: McCaskill “essentially” Has to Lie to Get Elected

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(St. Louis) Project Veritas Action Fund has released a fourth undercover video from campaigns during this 2018 election season. This is the second report featuring staff from incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill’s campaign. It exposes how McCaskill contributions from Planned Parenthood are delivered indirectly in order to not alienate moderate or pro-life voters.

James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas Action said:

“Politicians are notorious for saying one thing during an election and then doing something entirely different once they are in office. Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri has turned that practice into an art form.”

Planned Parenthood Making Indirect Contributions?

Campaign staffers working for Senator McCaskill explain how Planned Parenthood contributes to her campaign indirectly. Nicholas Starost, who works on Senator McCaskill’s campaign, alleges that Planned Parenthood does not outwardly support the campaign to avoid ostracizing moderate voters:

STAROST: “… Planned Parenthood will never donate money to Claire [McCaskill] even though she’s very pro-choice. because they don’t want to ostracize those pro-life democrats that might not vote for her, if there’s Planned Parenthood funding her.” JOURNALIST: “So, they just, they just funnel it through Emily’s List?” STAROST: “Probably. They go through other means to get us that money.”

Starost continued, saying Planned Parenthood “…put[s] it through like different organizations.” He added that most voters would not figure out this source of McCaskill’s campaign funds:

STAROST: “Unless they go like deep, deep, deep down into a campaign, like finance. Which most people just do not.”

When asked if the intent of the scheme was to get contributions without disclosing Planned Parenthood’s name specifically, Starost says, “Yup… It’s f***ing beautiful… It’s great when it works for us and not against us.”

Another individual who works on Senator McCaskill’s campaign, Grace Richardson, corroborates the Planned Parenthood contribution scheme is to protect McCaskill’s appeal to moderate voters:

JOURNALIST: “So, I’m still trying to wrap my head around that, that… thing Nick [Starost] was talking about the other day, that Planned Parenthood won’t donate to us.” RICHARDSON: “Oh yeah.” JOURNALIST: “I don’t understand why, I don’t get it.” RICHARDSON: “I think it’s the same with Obama not endorsing any red state democrats, it’s so like… It’s so that that democrat isn’t coming off as too leftist establishment.”

Richardson adds that even though Planned Parenthood is not publicly supporting Senator McCaskill, McCaskill will still “100%” work to support abortion rights.

RICHARDSON: “Yeah I think it’s like a tactic that’s to like make them not too far left to try to get the moderate voters.” JOURNALIST: “But we’re still going to support abortion, right?” RICHARDSON: “Yes. Yeah, 100%. It’s more of like them not… They go through other means to support and give money…”

Other individuals working on Senator McCaskill’s campaign, Melissa Balke and Darcy Becker, also spoke to the nature of Planned Parenthood’s contributions:

JOURNALIST: “Grace was telling me that while we don’t take donations from Planned Parenthood, we take donations from Planned Parenthood.” BALKE: “Indirectly.”

BECKER: So it’s not that they don’t support Claire, it’s because of… They know it’s a tough state to win for a Democrat, and they don’t want to hurt her chances of winning it by donating money. Cause even some moderate Dems are pro-life. And even those Republicans that are gonna vote for Claire, cause they’re pretty moderate, she could lose them if Planned Parenthood donated money to her.”

Becker added that Planned Parenthood intentionally makes its contributions indirectly to Senator McCaskill “… because they know it could hurt [her] in the election.” Becker also believes Planned Parenthood doesn’t “…want to hurt her chances of getting those lean GOPs and the undecided [voters.]”

“… more progressive than she lets on?”

Balke and another individual who works on Senator McCaskill’s campaign, Carson Pope, indicate that McCaskill is not as moderate as she purports to be:

JOURNALIST: “You were saying that you think [Senator McCaskill is] more progressive than she lets on?” POPE: “Yeah.” BALKE: “I think so too. I think she’s a lot more open-minded to taking like alternative routes to things but she can’t be open about that.” JOURNALIST: “Why not?” POPE: “Because this is a 19-point Trump state.” BALKE: “Because she would completely isolate the moderate Republicans.”

More Elections…

This is the fourth release in a series Project Veritas Action Fund began publishing in October 2018 exposing dishonesty and unethical conduct in elections across the country. Project Veritas Action Fund will continue to publish undercover reports in this series.

View the other investigative reports in this series: