O’Keefe On CNN Punk: I Liked The Idea, But There Weren’t Any Fuzzy Handcuffs

James O'Keefe
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Right-wing activist James O’Keefe has released a statement on his planned CNN “punk,” admitting that he liked the idea but contending that he wasn’t going to go through with it as planned.

“There were no mirrors, sex tapes, blindfolds, fuzzy handcuffs, posters of naked women, or music,” O’Keefe said. “Sorry, you were not going to see my face saying the words ‘Bubble Headed Beach Blonde who comes on at 5’ into a video camera.”

CNN reported last week that O’Keefe — who got famous after secretly videotaping meetings with ACORN employees and who pleaded guilty earlier this year to entering Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office under false pretenses — had planned to lure investigative reporter Abbie Boudreau onto his boat and seduce her in front of hidden cameras.

A document CNN published, written by O’Keefe associate Ben Wetmore, outlined a scenario in which O’Keefe, surrounded by fuzzy handcuffs, dildos and condoms, would attempt to seduce Boudreau, who was working on a documentary about young conservative activists. A script included in the plan had O’Keefe saying, “This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she’ll get seduced on camera and you’ll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.”

Now O’Keefe, in a long statement posted on his web site, says he never would have gone forward with the plan as written.

“When the CNN idea was pitched to me, I’ll admit that I liked the basic absurdity of meeting Abbie Boudreau on a boat and the idea of counter-seduction satire executed in a tame, humorous, non-threatening manner,” he said. “After all, as all liberal reporters do, she was trying to ‘seduce’ (a metaphor) me so she could get more for her story. It would be fun, I thought, to turn the tables in jest. However, I was repulsed by the over-the-top language and symbolism that was suggested in the memo that was sent to me, and never considered that for a moment.”

“In my version, the reporter was never going to be placed in a threatening situation. She would have had to consent before being filmed and she was not going to be faux ‘seduced’ unless she wanted to be,” he said.

Conservatives who usually flock to O’Keefe, including his mentor, Andrew Breitbart, have condemned the plan. Breitbart called it “patently gross and offensive.”

O’Keefe also said he believes that Izzy Santa, the now-former director of his organization who warned Boudreau of the plan, was acting in his best interests. Santa, he said, “was simply trying to protect me and the organization from a dangerous and objectionable plan, one sent to me in my personal emails that she assumed, wrongly, and probably due to my own lack of communication to her, that I was going to implement.”

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