Lee Stranahan of Rebel Pundit is in Louisiana covering Saturday’s Senate runoff election between Mary Landrieu and Bill Cassidy:
On Monday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana the Black Conservatives Fund held a press conference to show a new video that exposed Opelousas Mayor Don Cravins telling a crowd of black Democrats: “If you early voted, go vote again tomorrow. One more’s not going to hurt and tomorrow we’re going to re-elect Earl Taylor as D.A., so he won’t prosecute you if you vote twice!” ….Landrieu’s first move to nip the story in the bud was to announce a press conference across town at the exact same time as the Black Conservatives Fund’s Monday presser. Divide the press and conquer. Nothing to see here.Not only did Landrieu hold a counter-press conference to try and stop the Black Conservatives, but the Democrats sent a group of protestors to try and shout down the conference on Monday.Here’s where I come in. The undercover video was shot by a Louisiana local, but I did some work on the final video presentations for the Black Conservative Fund. I flew down to Baton Rouge last Friday and I was at Monday’s press conference.After the event, I went outside to talk to the loud, chanting protestors. The real action starts about a minute into this video, where the Democrat operative hits my camera while I ask questions of a young woman who was the protest handler.
In his post at Rebel Pundit, Stranahan highlights that while questioning a female Democratic operative, a second female Democratic operative appears and smacks his camera (at 1:05).
That second operative who smacked the camera is Kirstin Alvanitakis, Communications Director for the Louisiana Democratic Party.
The slap at the camera is not what caught my attention, though, but how both the Democratic female operatives played the intimidation card on Stranahan.
Stranahan asked the first women, who appeared to be there to prevent the protesters from speaking to the press, whether that was her job. She responded:
“Are you hassling me? … I think you are.”
Alvanitakis then steps in, slaps Stranahan’s camera, and also plays the intimidation card on Stranahan, accusing him of being intimidating to the first female Landrieu operative (full video below, you can jump ahead to here):
“You’re intimidating my friend, you’re a large man, and she’s a small woman, please back away. I’m asking you, please back away….”
When Stranahan says “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Alvanitakis repeats,
“Please stop intimidating my friend….”
To which Stranahan responds, “So you’re playing the intimidation card?” And it goes on just like that.
“I’m asking very kindly as a woman, please walk away…. Sir, I’m asking you as a woman, be a gentleman and walk away.”
There is nothing in the video showing Stranahan being physically intimidating. He was just doing what journalists do, asking questions. And in a public place. Of protesters. On a political issue.
That the Louisiana Democratic Party Communications Director would make such a charge based on gender is really disturbing. It’s a good thing Stranahan had the camera rolling, or who knows what they may have accused him of doing.
It’s the end-point of the War on Women campaign narrative – the use of gender as a sword and a shield.
Really disturbing.
And chilling on the work that journalists do.
[Note: Alvanitakis claims in the video that James O’Keefe engaged in illegal wire tapping. That’s not true. O’Keefe threatened her with a defamation suit over that statement. Related video here.]
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