James O’Keefe looked out of his element at Mar-a-Lago last week.
The undercover journalist sported a tuxedo, not a disguise, and everyone at the red carpet movie premiere knew who he was.
‘You don’t see news correspondents really going to Mexico. You see some YouTubers ride the train, but we rode La Bestia, and you’ll see that in the film.’
O’Keefe’s “Line in the Sand,” showing exclusively on the Tucker Carlson Network, finds the muckraker outlining the atrocities along the U.S.-Mexico border by fusing his trademark undercover reportage with traditional storytelling methods.
The results are chilling, unexpected, and raw.
The documentary both evokes empathy for the wave of immigrants flooding into the country and outrage at the greed, corruption, and government excess that has kept the roiling tragedy alive so long.
Truth social
The screening attracted an eclectic group of supporters, including several MMA fighters, social media influencers, and Donald Trump’s second wife.
MMA legend Tito Ortiz savaged the media for making a movie like “Line in the Sand” necessary. The narratives in the film stand in stark relief to border press coverage.
“The mainstream media has been telling a lie for such a long time, and it’s making people believe it. This is Psychology 101. This is, if you tell somebody a lie long enough, they think it’s the truth. And, I mean, my mother’s a victim of it herself,” Ortiz said. “She’s a lifelong Democrat. I try to make her believe into the truth, but she believes what she sees on mainstream media.”
The outspoken patriot said it’s crushing to watch the current administration turn his country from the land of opportunity to a free lunch free-for-all.
“What [O’Keefe] has done is expose what is really happening and what’s going on in this country, and it’s heartbreaking for me,” he said.
Evading capture
“Line in the Sand” comes to us with an assist from Carlson, who created a new platform from scratch following his abrupt Fox News exit.
This DIY strategy is something actress Sam Sorbo knows all about. Sorbo Studios, the production company she formed with husband/actor Kevin Sorbo, allows the canceled couple to make movies on their own terms.
Such radical independence is “even more important these days because the media has so been captured,” Sorbo said. “That’s a term that’s new for us, but it’s a term that applies now. And so what they’re doing, branching out on their own in a hostile environment, even, is so difficult. And that’s why I’m here supporting them.”
Sorbo also praised “Line in the Sand” for opposing the Biden administration’s open-border policies.
“We’re left with millions of people here in the country illegally, people we don’t know, people who have not been vetted, and an extraordinary surge in child sex trafficking that is untold,” she said.
Risky business
O’Keefe, who lovingly steered his parents down the red carpet, called the documentary a “long-form” version of his undercover stings. He added that he hopes to remind Americans of the vital importance of genuine investigative journalism, something too few news outlets are willing to invest in.
“I think that there really isn’t any investigative journalism really out there. There’s a lot of podcasts, but not a lot of journalism. It’s very expensive. It’s very risky, a lot of liability associated, a lot of danger associated with it,” said O’Keefe, who put his own safety on the line to capture the footage found in “Line in the Sand.”
“You don’t see news correspondents really going to Mexico. You see some YouTubers ride the train, but we rode La Bestia, and you’ll see that in the film.”
The train in question lets illegal immigrants hop aboard and travel through Mexico toward the U.S. border.
Ex-factor
Marla Maples, visiting an old haunt from her days as Trump’s wife, said “Line in the Sand” puts the emphasis where it belongs: on the vulnerable children most affected by the border chaos, ripped away from their families or plunged into the nightmare of human trafficking.
The film’s mid-section explores this frightening reality.
It’s why she went back to Mar-a-Lago on a muggy fall day. She also defended her former husband from a non-stop Hitler comparisons.
I’ve known Donald Trump since I was 20 years old. We went to church. His daughter converted to Judaism. He has Jewish children. I study from the Torah, and I study the teachings of Christ. He’s always supported that. For my daughter’s wedding, we did a Torah session. We did a Shabbat here at the wedding for all those that were Jewish and supported all of that. So again, it’s a false narrative to try and take away his ability to help America and help the people.
Joy in the fight
Singer Joy Villa had Trump’s back virtually from the jump. And she stood there mostly alone, at least in celebrity circles.
“When I came out [as a Trump supporter], nobody was out in a very public way at the Grammys,” she recalled. “I was fed up. I felt like Madonna can come out and say, ‘I’m gonna wear a pussy hat and let’s kill the president.’
“And I’m like, ‘Wait. I live in Hollywood and I’m pro-Trump. Why am I not represented?’ And everyone loves to fight for, oh, black rights, Latino rights, which I’m black and Latino,” she said. “And it’s not about that. It’s about what do we think. Not just how we look.”
That was then. These days, figures as far afield as Dr. Phil and Dennis Quaid are openly supporting the former (and future?) president.
“Now we have an outpouring of support for Donald Trump in the public eye. It’s incredible,” she said.
That matters in her eyes.
“There’s really good people out there who are feeling like they can’t speak up or they’ll fear for their lives, their livelihood, their jobs, all of that,” she said. “So when celebrities do speak up … it makes the little guy less afraid.”