A bombshell hidden-camera video released by conservative filmmaker James O' Keefe allegedly offers evidence that Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor's public stance on anti-gay-marriage has been a ruse to keep him in the race for next month's election, according to UK MailOnline. In actuality, the lawmaker has pledged his support to gay right activists privately, claiming that a redefinition of marriage should include gay and lesbian unions.
"I support traditional marriage, and I've been pretty clear on that for a long time," Pryor said in a May 31 news broadcast on KHBS-TV40 in the city of Fort Smith.
But according to the footage published by O'Keefe's Project Veritas Action, a conservative group known for its
"gotcha" videos, the chairperson of a pro-gay Arkansas Young Democrats organization was captured confessing to an undercover investigator that Pryor had assured gay marriage advocates that he was on their side.
Activist Bailey Rae Bibb was conned into believing that the undercover investigator was a gay man whose wealthy homosexual partner was hoping to be a potential campaign donor, but was holding back due to Pryor's position on traditional marriage, according to Western Journalism.
"I'm having some misgivings about it, given his marriage stance," he tells her in the hidden camera-wearing covert operative video.
Bibb can be seen immediately admitting that Pryor is "not going to come out and say, 'Oh yea, I support it,'" though she assures the man that his answer would be different in a more comfortable environment.
"If you ask him personally, like, like we are talking right now," she insisted, he would make it clear that he is "not against" gay marriage.
Asked if she has personally had that conversation with the senator, Bibb, who described Pryor as a family friend, says, "Oh, yeah."
"He said to a small group, like, 'Hey, you know, I'm not going to try to outlaw it, you know. I don't think you should be discriminated against,'" Bibb says on camera. "No, he's not a bad person."
But the confidential confession doesn't come without a threat.
"If you tell anyone I told you that, I'm gonna find you, and I'll kill you," Bibb concludes.
Additionally, another Democrat Party representative, Laura Campbell, was also caught on camera saying that Pryor cannot express his true feelings as a candidate. "He can't say everything he would like to say to get elected," she said, noting that he "has to play politics."
Meanwhile, "Bibb did not respond to phone, Facebook, SMS text and messages seeking comment," according to UK MailOnline. "The Pryor campaign did not immediately respond to a request for clarification about the senator's position on gay marriage."
