(JTA) — Not long after an organizer of the Conservative Political Action Conference called the “alt-right” anti-Semitic and racist in a speech, the movement’s leader, Richard Spencer, was kicked out of the event.
“There is a sinister organization that is trying to worm its way into our ranks,” Dan Schneider, executive director of the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC, said Thursday morning. “They are anti-Semites. They are racists.”
Schneider also argued that the alt-right, a fringe white nationalist group that has been accused of fomenting anti-Semitism, is “left wing” and “fascist.” President Donald Trump’s chief adviser, Stephen Bannon, has called the news organization Breitbart, which he once led, a platform for the movement.
“They hate the Constitution. They hate free markets. They hate pluralism,” Schneider said. “Fascists tend to want big government control.”
Spencer bought a ticket to the annual conference held this year outside Washington, D.C., in the Gaylord National Resort on Thursday morning and drew a large crowd of reporters near the building’s entrance, The Washington Post reported. After the crowd caught the attention of security guards, Spencer was soon after escorted from the building.
“His views are repugnant and have absolutely nothing to do with conservatism or what we do here,” CPAC spokesman Ian Walters told NPR.
Last month, neo-Nazi protesters planned an anti-Semitic demonstration in Spencer’s hometown of Whitefish, Montana, after the anti-Semitic website The Daily Stormer claimed that local Jewish residents were harming the business of Spencer’s mother.
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