I gotta say, candidate Jackson Lahmeyer put on a splash at the OKC Freedom Rally on Saturday. He must be getting financed because he rented the Embassy Suites Conference Center and the turnout was large by 2:00 pm. Around 2500 capacity it seems and the campaign claims that 2250 tickets were already sold as of Thursday.
The list of headliners is large, Lahmeyer, General Michael Flynn, and large number of pastors and motivational speakers. There is definitely a spiritual tone to the crowd.
I say tone because I and the other media folks didn't get to see much. Upon arrival some us were greeted by a pit bull of a supporter, short man in a suit. Pretty rude actually until the Lahmeyer campaign folks rescued us and escorted us to a big room with a dozen or so chairs that was being used as a stock room for someone selling t shirts in a booth in the hallway.
There we waited, with a person seated at the door to keep us in we were told and others out. I kid you not. So a few minutes the two guys from 3D Politics arrived and while we were chatting here comes the little pit bull guy demanding to know if we had tickets or were media. Well, one of the campaign consultants had given us a Lahmeyer sticker with the word media on it earlier. Not supposed to wear a candidate's sticker while covering an event but I suppose that was all they had. And an extra sticker for one of the 3D Politics guys which I duly handed over when they arrived.
So the little pit bull guy proceeds to get in the 3D Politic's guys faces demanding to know who gave them their press credentials (red Lahmeyer stickers with Media written on them in magic marker). Oh boy, both were wearing some sort of VIP rubber band wrist thingy, so the little pit bull guy got confused and demanded one of them had to sit in the conference room while the other had to stay in the “press” room. About this time both 3D Politics guys were as short on patience as the pit bull was tall and tummies came close to bumping. Time to spring into action and explain to the little pit bull that neither Lahmeyer nor his campaign consultants would appreciate him angering the media and that I knew both men and that they belonged there. Luckily the campaign consultants came along and calm down the pit bull while patting him on the head saying “Good boy.” Just a bit of overzealous behavior from a young man that had a taste of power and importance I guess.
One set of guys was a documentary film maker and his camera and light man, then 3D Politics, then the Sooner Tea Party peace maker, and that was about it. A bit of a ruckus happened when Fox 23 arrived, found out they were going to be interned with the rest of us and not allowed to film or record in the hallway or conference room and it seems they escaped captivity.
A bit later we got our first speaker to interview. They were supposed to speak on stage then to come to the media room for interviews. Well our first guy was a chiropractor running for Senate in California. Corie Williams, seems he was traveling around with this Freedom tour. Not quite sure why he was in Oklahoma but he was very conservative and well spoken.
Then we languished in our cell,
entertaining ourselves as we could, no visitors, no care packages,
only an occasional bed check by our warden sitting on the chair
outside. They did allow us out into the hallway to go to the
restroom. If not, well, I had plans and first dibbs on that big
potted plant. Oh, I should elaborate, were weren't allowed to actually use the restroom in the hallway, we were expected to use the hallway to travel to the restroom facilities. One additional indignity we put up with. Sarcasm alert for any CINOs reading.
Eventually the documentary guy was allowed out on parole into the hallway with a hand held camera. Not sure why. Must have been a snitch, informing on us for canteen credits or conjugal visits. Plans were made to shank the guy if he came back with food crumbs on his clothing as the rest of us were getting hungry.
No interviewees for a bit. Had we been bad? Scared off the speakers? Breath mint time? Time to head for the restroom for a good old fashioned Kamala bath in the wash basin?
Then our saviors, the campaign consultants showed up with Jackson Lahmeyer himself. Now I gotta say I was somewhat skeptical about Lahmeyer so far. Just another pastor, the abolitionists were pushing him, ouch.... that's gonna leave a mark. But you know, I wound up liking the guy after hearing him answer our questions
Lahmeyer spoke about Covid and the restrictions, how we were losing our freedoms, Christian values being chipped away, being an ORU graduate, CRT being used to divide the people and put us on the defensive and how the freedom rallies were their way of going on the offensive nationwide.
Lahmeyer had one interesting thing to say. He allowed how changing Washington D.C. was a stretch but that he could use his senatorial power to change Oklahoma and fix our problems. Sure, federal Senators do try to manipulate local and state politics but I have never heard one plan for that and campaign on it.
When our time came up to ask questions, after subduing the competition with well placed jabs and blows, our first question was about the GOP Party Platform, had he looked it over, did he have any issues with any of the principles on the first page, and would he mark up a copy showing where he stood. Lahmeyer said yes, without hesitation. Nice, we are going to get him a copy ASAP.
The next question might have been taken as an ambush. We stated that there was a battle going on between the abolitionists and the Pro Life supporters and asked which he was. At first I gotta say I was thinking we were going to get the standard political answer aimed at saying nothing and offending no one. Well, there was a surprise. Lahmeyer flat out stated that abortion was murder and that he wanted it ended. He referred to weed being grown against federal law, why not outlaw abortion?
Then he shocked all of us. He told a story from his past. It went something like this. Lahmeyer was a typical teenager in high school and well, he knocked up his girlfriend, my choice of words not his. He said he felt embarrassed and shamed and was convinced his life and plans for college were over. Then it seems a teacher just had to do a segment on teen pregnancy and Lahmeyer felt the world on his shoulders. Somehow that led to him attending a Church and he found the answer he was looking for, realized that he was going to be fine but that he needed to accept responsibility. If I recalled correctly he married the girl and raised the child.
Impressive, but our opinion was that he had actually evaded the question, did he support the abolitionists or the Pro Life agenda? So we apologized for giving an inaccurate question and restated it in terms of the abolitionists not allowing for a woman having a medically needed abortion versus the pro life agenda that believes that is a valid reason for an abortion, an ectopic pregnancy where both fetus and mother were unlikely to survive if nothing was done.
And Lahmeyer decided it was time he had to leave and there was no time to answer our question.
Then as he was filling out a rights release for the documentary film maker he surprised us by answering the dang question. In his view, when the life of the mother was at risk that meant the procedure was not an abortion. It was a medical necessity and he supported doing what was needed.
Wow.... I was more than a little impressed. Not just with the sharing of what most politicians would run like hell from, a teen pregnancy, but he actually answered probably the toughest question asked all day.
That was gutsy, Lahmeyer appears to be solidly Pro Life and is not an abolitionist supporter.
Sadly though after this interesting interview, the gulag was put on lock down. No visitors for several hours. The inmates were still locked in their cell so we all got to know each other and argued about politics and life and made the best of our self incarceration.
Eventually a lawyer from California shows up. Despite my advice to remember she was in Oklahoma and to talk slower she took off like a race car chattering non stop at an astounding rate. Leigh Dunbar, I got that much written down because I asked her to spell her name which slowed her down for a few seconds. I think she was also running for federal office in California but other than that she was a copy cat conservative, yada, yada, yada.
But this was distraction and no one wanted her to leave so I asked her a question about vaccine passport and we were regaled with reasons why a digital covid passport was the mark of the devil, the slippery slope that would leave to holocaust type outcomes. I kid you not, she not only invoked the holocaust and Monsieur short mustache, she did so after stating that she had been publicly lashed for invoking the holocaust in earlier speeches.
Sigh... once again we offered an apology for asking an imprecise question. The question was about vaccine passports, as in international travel with some sort of proof of being vaccinated in a way that would be accepted by foreign countries. With that elucidation we were told how dangerous of a slippery slope such a thing would be. Oooookaaaaayyyy.
We have had some fun with the Lahmeyer campaign staff with this article but we are not mad at them. They tried to set something up, perhaps the speakers were gun shy of any media and they weren't told that this was a friendly crowd. The Oklahoman and I believe it was the Norman Transcript were there and yes, they did do some ambush question especially when John Bennett interviewed. I think the ban on cameras or other recording in the crowd was a realization that this was an evangelical kind of crowd and we might have the odd attendee falling to the floor and speaking in tongues. Probably not a bad tactic to try to control the press because the mainstream press isn't our friend.
