James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas has just released new, secretly recorded footage on Tuesday that reveals CNN employees describing how the network worked to support President Joe Biden’s campaign during the 2020 presidential election. Mediaite has learned that this is the first in a series.
CNN Technical Director Charlie Chester played the video’s starring role. “Our focus was to get Trump out of office, right?” the video shows Chester telling someone off-camera. “Without saying it, that’s what it was.”
A source close to CNN tells Mediaite that Chester was targeted by Project Veritas via the dating app Tinder, in which his dating profile included CNN. The unidentified Project Veritas employee claimed to be a nurse, and the two initially bonded over Chester’s past health concerns. They went on a total of five dates, the last of which occurred at a coffee shop in Chester’s neighborhood, but was interrupted by O’Keefe and others before leaving the coffee shop.
The most damning portion of the video is the opening supercut comprised of footage viewers see later in the video. While many of these comments are cut for time — as is the standard procedure for what is known as a “super tease” — when cut together so quickly it has the desired effect of being much more substantial than comments viewed on their own.
Chester described his role in one scene as being “one step down from director,” though the role of technical director has no input on the content of any programming, and he was almost certainly not included in any editorial calls. Nonetheless, he was gainfully employed by CNN, clearly was observant to on-air programming, and referred to his network’s work to defeat former President Donald Trump as “propaganda,” but said he believed in the mission.
“Trump was — his hand was shaking, he was losing it,” Chester said. “He’s unfit. We were creating a story there. I think that’s propaganda.” In a separate cut-scene, he added, “We had nothing else to run with at that time. We were like, just taking shots off a bow, just hoping something would hit, you know?”
Chester also said he would be “OK” with it if Biden died, allowing Vice President Kamala Harris to ascend to the presidency.
O’Keefe defended his portrayal of a technical director in a statement to Mediaite: “As a technical director, Charlie Chester is fully involved in the day to day operations of CNN’s Newsroom. He is witness to decisions being made, and who they are coming from. He has full access to the culture within the network and explains — on video — how company-wide directives are being implemented.”
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