Richard Spencer Tossed From Conservative Gathering

Image by Twitter

By Daniel J. Solomon February 23, 2017

Richard Spencer, the white nationalist and founder of the “alt-right” movement, was ejected from the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Comittee on Thursday.

“They threw me out, it’s pathetic,” Spencer said, as he was escorted out of the Washington, D.C. venue. “I guess that they just discovered who I was, because the truth is that people want to talk to me, not to other conservatives.”

Matt Schlapp, head of the host organization, the American Conservative Union, defended the decision to remove Spencer in a statement to Politico. “You are welcome to come down here, we will have civil conversation about things we disagree with but there are boundaries, one of those boundaries is having respect for people, people’s heritage, people’s race, and the alt-right is not a voice in the conservative movement.”

The conference has been plagued by controversy since the weekend, when the event’s organizers were forced to disinvite “alt-right” fellow traveler Milo Yiannopoulos, after old recordings in which he seemed to condone pedophilia surfaced.

Spencer slammed his fellow persona non grata on Thursday, saying of Yiannopoulos, “I was willing to tolerate him or maybe be ambivalent about him but after his video clips, there’s no way that I could support Milo in any way… I totally reject Milo and am glad that he was disinvited.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO