Dozens of students from multiple universities in the area convened at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge Feb. 8 for the Harvard Conservative and Republican Student Conference featuring keynote speaker Steve Bannon.
Students said the event, which several conservative Harvard student groups organized, was an opportunity to network and find community in a city that leans heavily Democratic.
“I came today mainly to network, but also to learn about the conservative movement and to gain confidence in the conservative movement, especially in such a liberally-entrenched college like Harvard,” said Lucas MacFee, a student at Harvard who is part of the Leadership Institute.
In addition to Bannon, who was the White House Chief Strategist for seven months during President Donald Trump’s first administration, keynote speakers included former U.S. ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands and professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School Amy Wax. In between speeches, students attended panels concerning foreign policy, American identity and immigration and labor.
“The panels are amazing because you can hear, especially in the conservative and right-wing movement, there are tons of different opinions, and hearing [panelists] convey them and making your own conclusion from that is probably one of the most productive parts of going to these types of conferences,” said Nick, a student at Harvard who asked for his last name to remain anonymous due to concerns about being a conservative on Harvard’s campus.
“The Conservative and Republican coalition is stronger than ever. This event, being student-run, is designed to promote right-of-center discussion and to provide a means for right-of-center students to connect with one another,” the Harvard Conservative and Republican Society said in a statement to The Huntington News. “The importance to the Boston community can be seen in at least one way: members of the public who attended the conference witnessed a positive and respectful gathering of Conservative and Republican Harvard students.”
The conference wrapped with a speech from Bannon, who advocated for conservative positions on a range of prominent policy issues, including immigration, foreign relations and bureaucracy.
Bannon, a controversial figure who criticized establishment Republicans after leaving the White House in 2017, called “legal immigration programs” a “scam against American citizens.”
“There’s no legal immigration in our nation, understand that. It’s either illegal immigration to the border of 10 million people to destroy the low-skilled African Americans and Hispanics, and they brag about it,” Bannon said, adding that immigrants work for low wages in the U.S., which he likened to slavery and indentured servitude.
According to the Pew Research Center, 77% of immigrants are in the U.S. legally. An IZA World of Labor report found that immigrants do earn less than natives when they enter a new country, but wages generally grow over generations.
Bannon also reiterated the false claim that the 2020 election was “stolen,” saying that people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 had “never voted before” and have not voted in any election since “because they don’t exist.”
“We knew from the beginning, in those dark days of January of 2021, that Trump was going back,” he said, adding that Trump is an “instrument of divine providence…We had his back, of course. He’s on the hero’s journey.”
Bannon often urged the audience to “fight” and likened the current political climate to the American Revolution, Civil War and World War II.
“There’s going to be close to a civil war,” he said while discussing immigration. “The side that wins is the side that says we’re not going to quit. Do you have the guts to do that?”
Regarding bureaucracy and government spending, Bannon said he supports Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, including his recent push to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“We have to deconstruct the administrative state; we have to take down the deep state,” he said. “This is not what the framers of the Constitution had in mind.”
Second-year Boston University student Philip Wohltorf said he liked some of Bannon’s points while being critical of others.
“Overall, I think it was a motivating speech,” he said.
At one point, Bannon said Democrats are “the worst people on earth.”
“They don’t believe in the United States of America as an idea or an entity. What they believe in is money and power and transhumanism,” he said.
According to Britannica, transhumanism is a philosophical and scientific movement that advocates the use of current and emergent technologies. It’s not clear if this is what Bannon was referring to.
Members of the audience clapped and banged on tables in support of Bannon’s points. After taking a question about whether Trump will have to “crown” somebody as a successor, Bannon looked around the room and told the audience that some of its members would be leaders in the conservative movement in the next few years. He encouraged students to continue to stand up for their beliefs, even in a liberal area, and urged them to “fight.”
“You have to fight. And if you’re relentless and driven and focused and pure of heart, we’ll win,” Bannon said. “And if we win, they’ll talk about you hundreds of years from now.”
Madison Evangelist contributed reporting.
