A tip has emerged that Lee Jong-won made a 'political ploy' remark regarding Chu Mi-ae's candidacy during the 2021 presidential election, which is expected to cause controversy.
According to News TamSa, Lee Jong-won's statement that he engaged in a political ploy during the 2021 presidential election has been revealed. Lee Jong-won reportedly stated in a GaeGukBon executive meeting that Chu Mi-ae's candidacy was planned by himself, Assemblyman Jeong Cheong-rae, and Kim Eo-jun. This content is also included in the Honam GaeGukBon White Paper.
Rather, it is interpreted in the context that Lee Jong-won used a presidential candidate as a tool for political maneuvering. News TamSa is cautiously conducting further investigations into this matter.
Lee Jong-won's statement is understood to mean that Lee Jong-won himself utilized Chu Mi-ae's candidacy for political purposes, rather than Chu Mi-ae being involved in such a plan.
He requested individual assembly members to refrain from premature statements and set the resolution of dual party membership as a parallel task.
He stated that participating in the cabinet inherently means being a member and representative of the government, and it presupposes adjusting one's personal stance to align with the government's overall direction.
He made it clear that when participating in the cabinet, personal political stances must be adjusted to align with the overall direction of the government. He explained that this attitude is required of all cabinet members, including ministers.
He mentioned that it is a natural process for candidates to undergo this re-establishment during the confirmation hearing process.
He expressed the view that cabinet participation entails responsibility as a member of the government, not just taking on a position, and that if personal political convictions conflict with the government's policy direction, the government's direction must take precedence.
Initially, he claimed to have borrowed ideas from the Kim Min-seok camp or 'Jaemyung's Village'. However, when legal action was mentioned, he admitted to a slip of the tongue and reversed his position.
Subsequently, Lee Jong-won claimed that the idea was simply him 'borrowing' what Kim Min-seok's supporters had done, just changing the name. In other words, he explained that it was merely his adoption of an idea from Kim Min-seok's supporters.
He initially said he had taken ideas from a specific camp or organization, but when controversy arose, he changed his words to a simple 'borrowing'.
Questions have been raised about the leakage path of these numbers.
News TamSa stated that further verification is needed to determine if these numbers were exposed through sharing among supporters.
From this point, in fact, the illegality begins.
This raised suspicions of interference in public opinion surveys.
Reporter Kang Jin-goo mentioned that Assemblywoman Choi Min-hee's actions could lead to accusations of abetting a crime.
The distribution of the public opinion survey response guide and the disclosure of the phone number are pointed out as potentially undermining the fairness of public opinion surveys.
This statement was confirmed by a tipster regarding the situation at the time.
News TamSa reported that through the tipster's testimony, Lee Jong-won directly said, 'Chu Mi-ae is a sophisticated political ploy I orchestrated.'
This remark could rekindle controversy surrounding candidate Chu Mi-ae's role during the Democratic Party's presidential primary process at the time.
Testimony emerged that at the time, Lee Jong-won intentionally restricted support for candidate Lee Jae-myung. This amplifies questions about who Lee Jong-won's true object of support was.
The suspicion is that promoting candidate Chu Mi-ae was itself a sophisticated strategy to disperse votes for candidate Lee Jae-myung and ultimately benefit candidate Lee Nak-yeon.
It is pointed out that Lee Jong-won's actions caused confusion among Democratic Party supporters at the time and raised doubts about his political stance.
According to the tipster, the GaeGukBon leadership issued a directive to only support candidate Chu Mi-ae immediately after her declaration of candidacy in July 2021. At the same time, there was also a directive prohibiting mention of candidate Lee Jae-myung, according to testimony.
The content suggests that biased support was provided to the extent that GaeGukBon was virtually referred to as 'Chu Mi-ae's camp'.
This incident spread doubts about Lee Jong-won's sincerity of support.
Publicly cursing the chief of staff highlights the serious internal conflict between Lee Jong-won and Chu Mi-ae's camp.
Due to conflict with Representative Lee Jong-won, GaeGukBon's support base split. A tip emerged that the organization split in two, starting with the Incheon event and Suwon convention.
A separate organization supporting 'Jinjja Chu Mi-ae' (True Chu Mi-ae) split off and began independent activities, such as setting up a separate tent. This was a result of deepening conflict over direction with the Lee Jong-won-centric organization.
The tipster explained that GaeGukBon split, and Chu Mi-ae supporters began acting separately under the name 'Jinjja Chu Mi-ae'.
This division is interpreted as an event that revealed serious differences of opinion and leadership conflicts within GaeGukBon.
At the time, Lee Jong-won claimed that Chu Mi-ae's emergence was a ploy to support candidate Lee Jae-myung.
Approximately 25 people who were present at the scene reportedly heard this statement directly.
Lee Jong-won's remark could raise new suspicions about candidate Chu Mi-ae's role during the presidential primary process at the time.
He said, “Surely, no one here recorded this, right?”, acknowledging the sensitivity of the statement and attempting to control information.
Although there is no on-site recording file, the content is recorded in the minutes of the meeting at the time and the Honam GaeGukBon White Paper.
However, both sides avoided responding, not even confirming the messages.
Assemblyman Jeong Cheong-rae has not confirmed any of the reporters' messages.
The fact that Kim Eo-jun and Assemblyman Jeong Cheong-rae have not issued any statement regarding Lee Jong-won's claim amplifies suspicions.
Reporter Kang Jin-goo raised questions about why Lee Jong-won, Jeong Cheong-rae, and Kim Eo-jun remain silent, despite the fact that they should refute the reports if they are untrue. This silence makes many people think various things.
It was suggested that this could be interpreted as implying a 'one team' relationship among the three.
He explained that their political codes and contexts align.
He particularly noted the consistency in the three individuals' stances, citing past remarks by Assemblyman Jeong Cheong-rae criticizing candidate Lee Jae-myung in 2018.
The suspicion is that Lee Jong-won tried to elevate candidate Chu Mi-ae to disperse votes for candidate Lee Jae-myung.
There are doubts as to whether Lee Jong-won's initial support for candidate Chu Mi-ae, contrary to the sentiments of the majority of GaeGukBon members, was a conspiracy to split candidate Lee Jae-myung's votes.
The camp official reacted with surprise to the statement.
However, the official mentioned that from Lee Jong-won's perspective, he might have evaluated it that way afterward. The official also referred to both their gratitude towards Lee Jong-won's side at the time and their subsequent memories of discord.
Lee Jong-won has been confirmed to have resumed broadcasting activities.
News TamSa presumes that Lee Jong-won would have confirmed the content of News TamSa's reports upon his return to broadcasting.
The conclusion was that News TamSa's reporting was credible.
Attorney Lee Jae-il has been involved in numerous lawsuits, representing many individuals.
Answers come from the transcript, with the exact spot cited.
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