Hutchings: Should Have Kicked Project Veritas Crew Out of Union Office

Broome County legislator John Hutchings acknowledges it might have been a good idea to show the door to two men who showed up at a Laborers' Union office seeking government grant money.

The Binghamton Democrat works as a director of organizing for the Laborers' International Union of North America.

Hutchings was secretly recorded in Queens in late June meeting with the men who had told an organizer they were interested in joining the union.

The county lawmaker discussed the meeting during an interview on WNBF Radio's Binghamton Now program Thursday.

During the hour-long session, Hutchings said the men kept saying: "All we do is dig holes and fill it in."

Hutchings said he's "heard a lot of stupid ideas in my time" but he opted to just listen to the men, who actually were part of Project Veritas, a group that has made a name for itself with surreptitiously recorded encounters.

Hutchings said he never lobbied for the initiative that was described by the men, who said they represented a business called "Earth Supply and Renewal."

A few weeks later, Hutchings found out the secretly-recorded meeting had been "sliced and diced" and posted on the Internet.

One part of the recording that showed up on YouTube featured Hutchings suggesting some government-funded "green jobs" were nothing more than "bull---."

Hutchings said that's the "one thing" he regrets saying during the meeting. He said a lot of people actually are working hard on such job initiatives.

Hutchings has been thinking about that session a couple of months ago. And, he said, "in retrospect, I probably should have thrown them out of the office... Maybe that's the one mistake I did make."