ORLANDO, Fla. — For the second straight year, an Orlando hotel hosted a secret white nationalist conference as CPAC went on nearby, and this year Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was the special guest.
Greene then appeared Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in a panel discussion titled “They Can’t Shut Us Up!”
The Orlando World Center Marriott on Friday night was the scene of white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference, according to HuffPost. The Daily Beast also reported the gathering at that hotel.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., answers questions during a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday in Orlando, Fla. The white nationalist America First Political Action Conference was held nearby. John Raoux/Associated Press
The Hilton Orlando was the host to AFPAC last year, also during CPAC.
Fuentes was involved in the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and has been subpoenaed over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack.
Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at Friday night’s AFPAC.
Speakers at his event this year praised “Western white culture” and called for White House adviser Anthony Fauci to be hanged, HuffPost reported. Attendees also chanted, “Putin! Putin!” and cheered the Russian invasion of Ukraine, said Ben Lober, a research analyst at Political Research Associates who watched a live stream of the event.
Fuentes praised the crowd as “our secret sauce … young white men,” Lober wrote on Twitter.
“(They say) Vladimir Putin is Hitler and they say that’s not a good thing,” Fuentes said, according to a video of the event. “I shouldn’t have said that,” he added, smiling, to laughter.
Calls to the Marriott to ask about the event were cut off or immediately sent to voicemail. A request for comment from a corporate Marriott spokesperson was not immediately returned.
An Orange County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said deputies went to the Marriott at about 9 p.m. for “several bomb threat calls that were made.” A package was located and deemed safe.
Fuentes revealed Greene as the secret guest, referring to the gathered crowd as “canceled Americans,” HuffPost reported.
In a video posted Saturday to Greene’s website, she said she was “not familiar” with Fuentes’ views and that she spoke because there were a large group of young people with whom she wanted to share “American first policies.”
CPAC, held this year at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort, has tried to distance itself from Fuentes, kicking him out last year when he attempted to enter.
But Greene, one of the most controversial Republican Congress members, spoke at CPAC Saturday morning.
Grumbling could be heard when Greene’s name was announced. But she later got cheers when she said, “I refuse to be silent, and I refuse to shut up and I’m so proud to be up here … because none of us are going to stay quiet.”
Greene was stripped of her committee assignments last year for her endorsements of QAnon conspiracy theories and threats of violence against Democrats.
Like last year, Fuentes kept the location of his gathering secret until the last minute. At the time, a Hilton spokesperson who refused to be identified had no comment beyond insisting the event followed Orange County mask protocols imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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