“The Most Canceled Man in America” has, in fact, been canceled.
Nearly two weeks ahead of the libertarian conference FreedomFest, a lead conference organizer told The Daily Beast on Thursday night that officials had booted the holocaust-denying, Vladimir Putin-applauding, white supremacist rally-going Nicholas Fuentes from the conference’s lineup.
Fuentes had initially been scheduled to appear on a Freedom Fest panel titled “How to Fight the Information Police.” Fuentes was also supposed to host a screening of his short film, “The Most Canceled Man in America,” according to an agenda obtained by The Daily Beast.
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But all of that was scratched, after the libertarian conference in Las Vegas thought better of associating with the notorious white nationalist.
FreedomFest would have put Fuentes in the same conference as the likes of other scheduled speakers like Fox News host Lisa Kennedy, former congressman Justin Amash (L-MI), and failed presidential and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang. On Thursday, though, FreedomFest executive director Valerie Durham told The Daily Beast that Fuentes had been banned after several unnamed “leaders” complained about his appearance on the schedule.
“FreedomFest strongly believes in the fundamental right to free speech and free expression in our nation’s civil discourse,” Durham said in an email. “However, we also reserve the right not to endorse certain points of view that lead our nation away from such discourse.”
Durham conceded that the conference “did not adequately vet the film.”
“During this time, we were approached by several leaders we respect who gave us further information,” Durham wrote. “Upon learning this information, we took a deeper look into Mr. Fuentes’ ideology. As a result of that further research, we decided to remove Mr. Fuentes as a panelist.”
Fuentes didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
“The film festival is about cancel culture, and they cancelled our film lol,” Fuentes said on the social media app Telegram, before urging his fans to complain to the conference organizers.
After his FreedomFest exile, Fuentes now plans to screen his film elsewhere in Las Vegas during the conference.
Another far-right figure allied with Fuentes is having her own fight with FreedomFest. Activist and failed Delaware Senate candidate Lauren Witzke, who has aligned herself with Fuentes’s loyal “groyper army,” complained on Telegram this week that FreedomFest booted her from a panel.
Witzke claimed that one of the sponsors of the event, Epik, a domain registrar known for working with extremist websites, invited her to speak on a panel alongside right-wing radio host Eric Metaxas, conservative operative James O’Keefe, and Epik founder Rob Monster.
“I was kindly invited on the panel by Freedom Fest Platinum Sponsor, Epik - to which I am still extremely grateful for the invitation,” Witzke wrote on Telegram.
According to Durham, though, Witzke never got that far. FreedomFest’s lead organizer said the conference never agreed to let her appear at the conference.
“With regard to Lauren Witzke, she was invited by a sponsor to appear at FreedomFest, but we did not consent to have her speak at FreedomFest,” Durham said.
Despite apparently never securing a spot to speak at the conference, in an email to The Daily Beast, Witzke claimed the conference was committing “egregious discrimination against outspoken Christians.”
“I was initially confirmed and approved by Freedom Fest as a speaker on the panel,” she further claimed. “I wouldn't have just purchased plane tickets to Vegas had this not been absolutely confirmed.”
