House speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home early this weekend, despite a government shutdown looming next week, and will speak at an oversees gathering of right-wing leaders and influencers from Europe and North America.
The group Republicans Overseas will host the World Freedom Initiative on Friday and Saturday in Paris, France, where Johnson will join 22 speakers, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), former Donald Trump campaign manager David Bossie and various right-wing figures from France, Hungary and other European nations, reported KELO-TV.
"WFI has the basic goal of bringing the world’s like-minded conservative, patriotic and center right leaders from across the political spectrum together to create strong and lasting ties, define common priorities of national interest, find areas for bilateral and multilateral cooperation, learn from each other’s experiences, engage in frank and constructive exchanges, and facilitate fact-finding initiatives between nations’ political leaders," states the event's website.
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Republicans Overseas is classified by the IRS as a 527 political organization, similar to a political action committee, with the specific goal of repealing the Foreign Tax Compliance Act and is recognized by the Republican National Committee and similar GOP organizations.
"For its inaugural year, WFI will focus on a variety of themes that include: (1) Free Speech, Censorship and Lawfare; (2) Globalism : Dangers of Economic Decline, Myths of the Green Deal and Alternative Visions for a Better Future; (3) Strategies to Set Up a Winning Election Campaign : Trump’s 2016 Campaign Managers Secrets, Social Media and Governmental Interference : the Future of Elections; (4) Illegal Immigration & Border Security; (5) Wokism under all its Facets and How to Reverse the Trend," the website states.
Many of the speakers are adamantly anti-Muslim, such as French politicians Nicholas Dupont-Aignan, Jean-Frederic Poisson and Eric Zemmour – who was convicted of hate speech for calling migrant children rapists and murders.
Zemmour will open the conference Friday with a segment entitled “The Future of Right-Wing Alliance," and Noem will close the conference on Saturday.
Here's the full list of speakers at the conference: