PYRAMID SCHEME

CPAC Yanks Speaker After Anti-Semitic, Pro-Pizzagate Posts Surface

Young Pharaoh also attacked fellow conservative commentator Ben Shapiro for his Judaism, according to Media Matters.

A planned featured guest at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference with a history of making anti-Semitic and conspiratorial comments will no longer be speaking at the event, CPAC announced Monday. The speaker, who goes by Young Pharaoh, once tweeted out that “THERE IS NO #HISTORICAL OR #SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF #JEWS OR #JUDAISM... ITS ALL A COMPLETE #LIE. … COMPLETELY MADE UP FOR #POLITICAL GAIN.” He also attacked fellow conservative commentator Ben Shapiro for his Judaism, according to Media Matters, which first reported the posts. His conspiracies aren’t limited to the Jewish faith, according to Media Matters; he’s also tweeted false claims about the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and that the COVID-19 vaccine changes your genetic makeup, which it does not. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, along with former President Trump, are scheduled to speak at this year’s iteration of the annual conference. Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which organizes CPAC, told The Daily Beast in a text that “I am unaware of this person or their opinions. Happy to dig into it.”

A source later confirmed to The Daily Beast that Pharaoh had been removed as a speaker, confirming earlier reporting from freelancer Ben Jacobs. “We have just learned that someone we invited to CPAC has expressed reprehensible views that have no home with our conference or our organization,” the organization wrote on Twitter on Monday, though it did not specify who the person was. “The individual will not be participating at our conference.”

—With additional reporting by Justin Baragona.