While South Dakota groaned under our first snow of the fall, Governor Kristi Noem was in Miami, Florida, dipping into the American Priority Conference, where the New York Times reported a Macabre Video of Fake Trump Shooting Media and Critics Is Shown at His Resort.
To her credit, Gov. Kristi Noem 'strongly condemns' fake video of Trump shooting media, opponents, Lisa Kaczke reported Monday in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:
Gov. Kristi Noem said she "strongly condemns" a violent video depicting President Donald Trump carrying out a massacre of news organizations and political opponents. The video has been thrust into the national spotlight after it was shown at a national conference over the weekend.
Noem was "briefly" in attendance for part of the American Priority conference, but didn't have any speaking roles at the conference and did not see the "horrible video" when it was shown at the conference, her spokeswoman Kristin Wileman said. Noem has since watched the video and "strongly condemns the despicable message of violence and division it portrays," according to Wileman. . . .
We grew curious about the American Priority Conference itself, wondering what drew the first-term governor to the event. Looking over the agenda, we saw nothing about demonizing industrial hemp or encouraging children to kill possums, badgers and other small mammals. We were baffled.
The New York Times broke the story about the violent video on October 13. On the opening day, Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer provided some background about the three-day event in Imagine a Conference Full of Conspiracy Theorists. Sponsored by a Prison Company. At a Trump Resort:
Last year, a group of far-right fringe agitators and conspiracy theorists set out to create a pro-Trump political conference in DC for people just like them. Headliners for the American Priority Conference included Trump whisperer Roger Stone, before he was indicted for lying to Congress, and short-lived Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. But the event at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park proved to be an embarrassing flop, with attendance so dismal that one scheduled speaker fled rather than address such a small audience. Undeterred, organizers this year have taken a new approach by moving the event from DC to the Trump National Doral Miami Golf Club in Florida.
Relocating to a property owned by the president seems to have transformed the conference, which starts Thursday, into a bona fide political confab. It has attracted some more prominent speakers this year, notably the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., who will stand for selfies with anyone who pays the VIP rate of $2,500 to attend. But American Priority also seems to have nabbed the support of the sort of a big corporate patron that was missing from its 2018 fringe-fest. GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison company that has received nearly half a billion dollars in federal contracts to detain immigrants since President Trump took office, is now listed as one of its most prominent sponsors. . . .
A press release for the American Priority Conference touted the new location of the event with as many superlatives as it did for any of the major headliners. “Doral Resort offers an experience like no other with unbeatable savings and luxurious accommodations on a prestigious 800-acre resort in tropical Miami,” it read. “The $250 million renovation boasts a completely re-designed clubhouse, 643 new deluxe accommodations, fresh restaurant concepts, enhanced championship golf courses, re-imagined Trump Spa and an array of retail shops and recreational amenities, including the Royal Palm Pool oasis.”
We guess that beats bundling up in Pierre when the winds of October come calling. Perhaps she felt a need to hobnob with those who insist extreme weather events are not wrought by human activity. Mencimer reports:
The event will feature a climate change denier as well as promoters of QAnon, an internet conspiracy that claims Trump is fighting the deep state to stop liberal elites they believe are running a secret pedophile ring. Tracy Beanz, who organized 100-plus QAnon believers to march on Washington last year, will be on a panel called “Unmasking the Russian Hoax,” along with George Papadopoulos. He’s the former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about the campaign’s contacts with Russia.
Conferencegoers will hear from the internet troll Jack Posobiec, who helped promote an earlier conspiracy theory that suggested Hillary Clinton and her henchmen were running a pedophile ring out of the basement of a DC pizza parlor. The idea inspired an armed North Carolina man to show up at Comet Ping Pong and fire shots as he searched for the nonexistent basement holding cell. The event will also feature a speech from “free speech maven” Jason Fyk, who sued Facebook after the social media giant killed his business by shutting down pages he’d created that were dedicated solely to videos and photos of people peeing. (He lost.)
Along with a golf tournament and pool parties, the conference schedule is packed with random people who’ve become minor internet celebs for owning the libs, like Scott Presler, a member of Gays for Trump who organized a trash cleanup day in Baltimore after Trump criticized the city as “a disgusting rat and rodent-infested mess.” Trump’s military high school platoon sergeant, now a Florida lawyer, is on the schedule to talk about taxes along with Trump superfan, radio host and QAnon promoter Bill Mitchell. Sadly, raw food advocate David “Avocado” Wolfe will no longer be leading the QAnon crowd through downward dog poses at daily yoga classes. Touted early on in the conference promo materials, Wolfe was perhaps even too fringy for the American Priority Conference. As The Outline explains, “Wolfe has stated that mushrooms arrived on our planet via the cosmic wind. He tells his followers vaccines are a conspiracy, and believes that chemtrails are real.” He’s no longer on the schedule.
All in all, it’s not the sort of event that corporate America tends to get behind—and it hasn’t. Most of the other sponsors are conservative political groups such as American Majority or small outfits like Republican Legion, which sells MAGA hats online. GEO Group did not respond to a request for comment. The American Priority Conference is organized by a low-profile Virginia conservative activist and telecom exec named Alex Phillips, who also did not respond to requests for comment; nor did the conference’s PR team. . . .
Perhaps the Argus Leader and other members of South Dakota's press corps can inquire what the attraction was. Surely we can hope it was just the chance to be seen at a Trump resort.
Photo: Nice landscaping at the Trump National Doral Miami resort. The palms trees lining the opulent streets of Summit simply don't compare.
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