Goggin also reported on other easily identifiable figures with ties to neo-Nazis he saw at CPAC, including one “with an official badge” from the event.
Benjamin Goggin, NBC News’s deputy tech editor, defended his report on Nazis receiving a “friendly reception” at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference after CPAC publicly called it “false, misleading, and grossly manipulative.”
Goggin noted in his report that CPAC has long had to deal with far-right extremists trying to infiltrate the conference, but in past years would quickly eject those with explicit ties to neo-Nazis, like Nick Fuentes.
“But this year, racist conspiracy theorists didn’t meet any perceptible resistance at the conference where Donald Trump has been the keynote speaker since 2017,” Goggin wrote...
NBC reporter: "there were Nazis openly schmoozing at CPAC"
Republican Party: "NO THERE WEREN'T! THAT'S A LIE! YOU HAVE NO EVIDENCE OF THAT!"
NBC reporter: presents evidence
Republican Party: surprised Pikachu face
But seriously, we all know where this is going. Conservative leaders will cry "librul media persecution!" And about 95% of their followers will just believe them and refuse to check the presented evidence, because it's more convenient for them to blindly follow the movement than it is for them to accept the truth.
Worse, they'll play the "just because Nazis were here doesn't mean we're Nazis" card. They will find a picture from 1967 where some hippie brought a Nazi flag to a Humphrey rally to prove that both sides are the same.
Maybe he just meant they weren’t “Nazis,” but rather “Neo-Nazis” or some other type of white nationalist of a more modern vintage. Your Pinochet admirers, neo-confederates, and so forth. Barely anyone at CPAC was even an adult during WWII and certainly no one at the young fascist mixer.