Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

QAnon-linked convention scheduled for Las Vegas in doubt

QAnon

Ted S. Warren / Associated Press

In this May 14, 2020, photo, a person carries a sign supporting QAnon at a protest rally in Olympia, Wash., against Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington state stay-at-home orders made in efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. QAnon is a wide-ranging conspiracy fiction spread largely through the internet, centered on the baseless belief that President Donald Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. It is based on cryptic postings by the anonymous “Q,” purportedly a government insider.

A controversial QAnon-linked convention scheduled for this fall in Las Vegas won’t happen at Caesars Entertainment properties as planned, resort officials said today.

It’s unknown if the event, listed as the For God & Country Patriot Double Down, will remain in Las Vegas. Calls to the convention’s organizer, the Patriot Voice, a group with ties to the QAnon movement, weren’t immediately returned.

The group’s website, where tickets had been offered for the three-day event at the Caesars Forum convention center behind the Linq, wasn’t functioning this afternoon.

Caesars isn’t commenting further.

The event was scheduled for Oct. 23-25 with a lineup of speakers that included retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser under Donald Trump, and a host of QAnon sympathizers and far-right figureheads, according to the event’s webpage.

QAnon, a purveyor of far-right conspiracy theories, is labeled by the FBI as a potential source of domestic violence and could seek to harm perceived members of what the movement refers to as “the cabal,” according to an FBI report. That includes Democratic politicians and celebrities that QAnon followers claim are engaged in nefarious activities.

Experts said having the conference in Las Vegas could be dangerous, especially with Patriot Voice bringing in a “security team” from 1st Amendment Praetorian, a group created to deal with would-be protesters at conservative rallies and events.

Kristen Doerer, managing editor of Right Wing Watch, told the Sun that the lineup for the conference represented a “who’s who of the far-right movement, particularly the QAnon movement.”

“This lineup kind of shows how QAnon has infiltrated the Republican Party,” she said. “What you can expect at this event is a lot of talk about the false claims that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and a lot of anti-mask and anti-vaccine sentiment.”

It is unknown how many people registered for the gathering, where ticket options started at $650 and ranged up to $3,000 for a “high roller VIP all weekend pass.” One speaker, former Republican Nevada Assemblyman Jim Marchant, who is running to be the GOP nominee in 2022 for secretary of state, dropped out last week, his campaign said.