I cover CPAC every year. Aside from talk radio, it’s probably the best place to learn about and understand the dominant contemporaneous strain of conservativism. Moreover, CPAC is incredibly accommodating to press of all stripes, including this free-lance photographer and reporter. And for a reporter, the accessibility one enjoys to conservative opinion-leaders is simply unparalleled.
This year was no different.
When I attend these events with my reporter hat on, I generally look for stories that I believe deserve more coverage than the mainstream press is delivering.
This year was no different.
In the immediate aftermath of the election, Dr. Sebastian Gorka was seen wearing a traditional Hungarian uniform with a medal that has been connected to Hungarian Nazi collaborators. Dr. Gorka has been asked to repudiate his former connections to far-right and racist Hungarian politics by the Anti-Defamation League. So far as I know, Dr. Gorka has not addressed the issue.
Someone should at least ask.
Aside from concerns personal to Dr. Gorka, top White House advisor Stephen Miller has been accused of sending coded signals of support to white supremacists. Considering that Miller is no stranger to accusations of racism, I personally believe it is obtuse beyond reason to dismiss the hand signals summarily.
Someone should at least ask.
Dr. Sebastian Gorka and Stephen Miller aren’t the only senior White House aides to endure accusations of racism. Steve Bannon was accused of odious and flagrant anti-Semitism. National Security Council communications director Michael Anton has been shown to have written racist essays under a pseudonym.
Clearly, there are questions to be asked of this White House.
And someone should at least ask.
At CPAC, I found myself face to face with Dr. Sebastian Gorka. I asked for an interview. He told me he’d did not want to be on video. I turned my video off and introduced myself, telling him that I would publish at DailyKos. Dr. Gorka snorted a chuckle of contempt, and then told me he wouldn’t do the interview.
At that point I went after the story under my own terms, by asking a series of questions about his medal and Stephen Miller. Gorka studiously ignored me.
Temporarily discouraged, I gave up on the interview and walked away.
But then I had a change of heart.
I wasn’t going to let go of the opportunity. Racism inside the White House is an incredibly important story, and it isn’t being reported out.
I turned around, started the video recording and asked my questions again. This is the result: