Venue Shuts Down Natl’ Policy Institute Pre-Conference Event; Conference Is Still On Though

Activists in DC working against this weekend’s conference got this shut down – for now – but there’s still work to do.

WASHINGTON, DC – Although the White Supremacist National Policy Institute (NPI) will still hold their conference at the Ronald Reagan Building on Saturday, the venue that they planned to hold their pre-conference event Friday evening featuring reality show star Tila Tequila has canceled their contract with the organization.

The Hamilton, a trendy restaurant in downtown Washington announced this in a tweet responding to @SmashRacismDC, one of the primary groups opposing the NPI Conference this weekend, “The event is no longer being held at The Hamilton.” Although the venue had been kept a secret by NPI, once word was leaked of the location of the event the Hamilton was flooded with phone calls of outrage and inquiry. It is likely NPI organizers will have another venue, as they and other hate groups often get removed from the places they book for events once the nature of the organization is learned.

@SmashRacismDC The event is no longer being held at The Hamilton.

— The Hamilton (@thehamiltondc) November 17, 2016

Last summer, a press conference put on by NPI was to be held at the National Press Club, but the Club similarly barred them from holding that and future events, citing security concerns stemming from a previous conference held on Halloween 2015 when a protest was held outside the building. It was reportedly the first time in its 108-year history that the National Press Club closed its doors to a venue.

@SmashRacismDC and other groups are still trying to get others to appeal to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center to also close their doors to Saturday’s conference. NPI has held several conferences there before, most recently on March 5, and it has been a preferred location because it is a public facility, making it harder for them to be removed because of protest. If the conference is not shut down at the Reagan Building, a protest is planned for outside.

Earlier this week, the Twitter accounts of NPI, its blog Radix Journal, its executive director Richard Spencer and its publishing company Washington Summit were suspended along with other neo-Fascist accounts on the social media network. At the time of this posting, there was no public statement from NPI on being shut out of the Hamilton. Tila Tequila, an Asian woman who has aligned herself with neo-Nazi ideals, had been tweeting during the day as she was in the airport preparing to fly to Washington, DC.