2020 Conservative Conference Features Over 30 Antisemitic Speakers
The 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference (February 26-29, 2020) featured a slate of speakers that included over thirty politicians and right-wing figures with a history of antisemitism and white nationalism:
September 21, 2019: Co-headlined a luncheon with conspiracy theorist Chris Farrell, whose antisemitism is so extreme that he was banned from Fox News.
Candace Owens
February 2019: Said everything would have been okay if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great — claims the problem was his invasion of other countries (as opposed to the Holocaust)
Charlie Kirk
Founder of Turning Point USA, which has courted antisemites and white nationalists
Leans in to Soros conspiracy theories
Chuck Ross (The Daily Caller)
Tweets conspiracies about Soros
August 30, 2018: Crenshaw was one of six GOP candidates for office revealed as an administrator for a white nationalist Facebook group. Antisemitic, Islamophobic, and racist posts were regularly shared on the group’s page, including the false claim that Nazi chants of “Jews Will Not Replace Us” in Charlottesville were staged by liberal activists.
October 5, 2018: Suggested that women protesting Brett Kavanaugh are paid by Soros, invoking the antisemitic conspiracy theory that sinister Jewish figures are orchestrating the machinations of social movements to destroy western civilization. (See here for the Ben Garrison cartoon that sums up that conspiracy pretty blatantly)
August 20, 2019: Called American Jews who vote Democrat “disloyal”
October 10, 2019: Trump endorsed, and Vice President Mike Pence campaigned with, Minnesota Republican candidate for Senate, Jason Lewis. Lewis has accused Jews of dual loyalty and has claimed that the “Jewish Lobby” controls the GOP.
October 19, 2019: At a rally in Montana, Donald Trump falsely claimed Brett Kavanaugh protesters were paid by George Soros, promoting an antisemitic trope about Jews conspiring to undermine the government.
December 8, 2019: In his most antisemitic speech to date, Trump called a room of Jews “brutal killers” and “not nice people” at the IAC.
December 11, 2019: Signed an Executive Order that he claims will fight antisemitism. The truth is that this Executive Order uses Jews as an excuse to crack down on free speech and anti-authoritarian activism, and roots the definition of antisemitism in criticism of Israel. Setting Jews up to take the blame for attacks on American freedoms endangers Jews.
September 14, 2016: Joked about “warming up the gas chambers”
April 27, 2018: Claimed the “globalist elite” — a dog whistle for the word “Jews” — would never allow Trump to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
May 28, 2018: Retweeted an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming that George Soros, a liberal Jewish donor and Holocaust survivor, collaborated with the Nazis.
March 28, 2019: Gave an on-camera interview to an antisemitic hate-site whose founder has called Jews and Judaism “anti-Christ.” The site has also accused Jews of trying to murder Christians. Trump Jr. refuses to denounce the site.
June 25, 2019: Tweeted that George Soros is funding efforts to “financially blacklist” right-wing groups, promoting the antisemitic and false idea of a Jewish conspiracy to control our political system.
October 2, 2019: Tweeted out that the whistleblower is a “puppet” of George Soros. Accusing Jews of being “puppet-masters” is an antisemitic trope.
Eduardo Bolsonaro
Has close ties to Steve Bannon and is the son of far-right fascist Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
Glenn Beck
James O’Keefe
August 2019: Promoted and labeled as a hero a whistleblower found to have accused “zionists” of running the government. When asked about this, O’Keefe said “not every source is a perfect angel.”
Minnesota Republican and former candidate for Senate who infamously accused Jews of dual loyalty and has claimed that the “Jewish Lobby” controls the GOP.
March 4, 2019: Tweeted “$teyer” in reference Tom Steyer, a prominent Democratic donor whose father is Jewish, and who has frequently been scapegoated as a rich liberal donor, along with Soros and Bloomberg, by people using antisemitic dog-whistles.
Delivered a speech at the National Conservatism Conference railing against “cosmopolitan elites” who he calls are disloyal to America, “loyal only to the global community.” “Cosmopolitan” is an antisemitic dog-whistle, made all the more intentional when paired with tropes about dual loyalty. Hitler and Stalin used this same word in their speeches inciting violence against Jews.
Ken Cuccinelli
September 26, 2019: Spoke to an anti-immigrant hate group.
April 4, 2019: Said the Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty was only meant to apply to people coming from Europe.
Promoted an antisemitic conspiracy theory to win reelection in 2018. He never apologized for this, but was one of the first in GOP leadership to accuse Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) of antisemitism because of her tweets.
Attended an event and posed for a picture with neo-Nazi Jovi Val.
December 6, 2018: Questioned George Soros’s Jewish ancestry in an unprovoked diatribe on Fox Business. The rant was so offensive that the Fox Business host condemned it. Gohmert later claimed that his rant was a “pro-Jewish statement,” citing an anti-Soros statement from the Israeli government.
October 22, 2018: Went on Fox News to promote the same antisemitic conspiracy theory about George Soros that has motivated white nationalist violence across the country. The same day, a Trump supporter attempted to assassinate Soros with a pipe bomb. Gohmert later doubled down, issuing a statement doubling down on his antisemitism, calling Soros “anti-God, anti-Israel” and “the largest ever global funder of efforts to undermine America’s Constitution.”
January 17, 2019: Defended Steve King after his infamous “western civilization” comments
March 15, 2019: Victim-blamed Muslims after the Christchurch massacre
As a Congresswoman in 2004, she brought a leader of an SPLC-designated hate group to the U.S. House to deliver an opening prayer.
Has ties to ACT for America (Islamophobic hate group).
In 2017, met with the Nazi-linked Austrian Freedom Party (alongside Rep. Steve King).
Received an award from the anti-Muslim hate group ACT for America.
November 10, 2019: Tweeted what many considered an antisemitic dog whistle about impeachment.
January 30, 2018: Brought a Holocaust denier as his guest to SOTU 2018
October 17, 2018: Posted a video on Twitter of someone supposedly handing cash to migrants to “storm the US border,” and suggested that Jewish billionaire George Soros was behind it. This is the same antisemitic conspiracy theory that would, ten days later, motivate a white nationalist to commit the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
April 19, 2019: Hired Darren Beattie to be one of his speechwriters. Beattie formerly worked at the White House but was fired after it was discovered that he spoke at a white nationalist conference alongside Richard Spencer.
December 11, 2019: Tweeted that “George Soros is not hated because he is Jewish it is because he is the architect of the destruction of western civilization.”
Naomi Seibt
Called white nationalist Stefan Molyneux an “inspiration.”
Nigel Farrage
October 31, 2017: Said “Jewish Lobby” has too much power
May 6, 2019: The Guardian published a piece about Farrage using antisemitic dog whistles in interviews with conspiracy theorists
Is a frequent guest on TruNews, having given multiple interviews to Pastor Rick Wiles (the antisemitic “Jew Coup” conspiracy theorist).
October 5, 2017: Falsely claimed Soros was behind/staged Charlottesville
May 31, 2019: Gosar exposed as following several racist and possible Nazi-affiliated accounts from his personal Twitter
August 3, 2019: Endorsed Islamophobic conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is running for Congress in Florida. Loomer is a white nationalist who, despite being Jewish, regularly promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Former ACT for America (an SPLC-designated hate group) staffer
Spoke at an event in Iowa with Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes.
Is an associate of fascist Michael Sisco and Q Anon conspiracy theorist (and current GOP Senate candidate challenging Chris Coons) Lauren Witzke.
Gorka has strong ties to a far-right Hungarian group, Vitézi Rend, that collaborated with the Nazis. While Gorka has denied being a member, he wore the Vitézi Rend medal at Trump’s Inaugural Ball and formerly served as an advisor to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has his own documented history of antisemitism. Gorka also co-founded his own political party in Hungary with known antisemites.
2002: Gave a speech at a white nationalist conference
October 14, 2019: Has a confrontation with Jewish Louisianans who call on him to condemn white nationalism and antisemitism in the GOP and from Trump
February 18, 2020: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tweets “it’s almost like he owns the media,” in response to a journalist Yashar Ali’s important point that Bloomberg News’s favorable coverage of Michael Bloomberg’s campaign is troubling. “Jews own the media” is an antisemitic trope. It is true that Bloomberg owns his own media company, and that that company is covering him favorably — this is the point Ali made. It is not true that Bloomberg owns all media companies. That suggestion, made by Senator Cruz, is antisemitic. When criticized by Congressman Andy Levin (D-MI) for the tweet, Senator Cruz responded by accusing Rep. Levin, who is Jewish, of not doing enough to fight antisemitism.
Wayne LaPierre
In a 2018 speech, he singled out three Jewish billionaires,accusing them of promoting an “evil, destructive, left-wing ideology” of “Soviet Socialism, National Socialism [and] Maoist Communism.”
In his 1994 book, Guns, Crime, and Freedom, LaPierre peddled the false claim that the Holocaust could have been avoided had Jews been armed with guns.
Under LaPierre’s leadership, the NRA frequently used antisemitic imagery depicting Michael Bloomberg as an octopus.
Under LaPierre’s leadership, NRA lobbyist Brian Judy, who invoked the Holocaust to belittle Jews supportive of gun control, was not reprimanded or fired for his antisemitic comments. According to Judy’s LinkedIn, he is still employed by the NRA as of 2020.