Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon told a cheering CPAC crowd in Washington, D.C., this week that the J6 Prison Choir — composed of men jailed after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — would perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
“I talked to Ambassador Ric Grenell last night,” Bannon said at the Conservative Political Action Conference, referring to the former ambassador to Germany whom President Trump appointed as the center’s interim executive director. “And I think the J6 choir is gonna play the Kennedy Center for a night and honor their families.”
A representative for the Kennedy Center, however, told The Times on Friday: “We do not have any information on this as a Kennedy Center confirmed event.”
Speculation has swirled about the future of Kennedy Center programming now that Trump has wrested control of the national arts institution and dismissed board members appointed under former President Biden, as well as longtime board Chair David M. Rubenstein and longtime President Deborah F. Rutter.
High-profile artists associated with the center or scheduled to perform there have stepped down or canceled appearances, including TV producer Shonda Rhimes, musician Ben Folds, opera singer Renée Fleming and actor Issa Rae.
Online chatter about a J6 Prison Choir appearance at the center picked up steam after early media reports took Bannon’s remarks seriously. The choir is best known for a recording that features the men singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” interspersed with clips of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The song briefly took the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s digital song sales chart after it was released in March 2023.
A music video for the song — featuring clips of the Capitol riot as well as images of Trump hugging the American flag, pledging allegiance to the flag and holding rallies — premiered on the “Bannon’s War Room” podcast.
At CPAC, Bannon said the J6 choir should open the new incarnation of the Kennedy Center under Grenell and Trump.
“And we invite all the families they tried to destroy, the J6ers, and they get to sit in boxes where the elites sit,” Bannon said. “And we take the elites — for just one night — and we take them down to the D.C. gulag.”
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