Ralph Terry was shocked when he heard there would be protests over Steve Bannon being the keynote speaker and award recipient at the Brian Terry Foundation annual award dinner.
The Foundation chose Steve Bannon as keynote speaker and recipient of the Brian Terry Courage in Journalism and Reporting Award because of Breitbart’s reporting on “Operation Fast and Furious,” a botched U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms gunrunning investigation into the movement of guns to Mexican drug cartels during which U.S. officials lost track of the guns.
Brian Terry was a Border Patrol agent who was shot in 2010 while looking for members of a suspected drug cartel. A semi-automatic rifle recovered at the scene was tracked back to a gun lost during the Fast and Furious investigation.
The Foundation is not a political group, said Ralph, the foundation’s president and Brian’s uncle. He hadn’t thought about Bannon being called a white nationalist, but that he was “a key player in President Trump’s election,” Ralph said during an interview with the Tucson Weekly.
“It’s unfortunate when any group has to start putting labels on people—‘white nationalist,’ ‘Black Lives Matter.’ We all matter,” he said.
The Foundation raises money for the families of Border Patrol agents killed on duty and toward scholarships for people pursuing careers in law enforcement or criminal justice. It has awarded 40 scholarships, and Ralph says he hears from people that it changed their lives.
The Terry family had a hard time finding closure after Brian’s murder because the government was not forthcoming with information, Ralph said.
“Mr. Bannon kept right on top of that for us and kept it in the public eye, and we appreciate that,” he said. “To smear the Foundation because they may or may not agree with that person’s politics is below the line that I want to go.”
At the Starr Pass Marriott resort last night, there were a few protesters holding signs calling Bannon a Nazi, but shuttles whisked guests of the foundation right past them with little disturbance.
It took the family 18 months to get information about what happened to Brian, said former Congressman Ron Barber, who spoke at the Foundation’s first luncheon and presented a Congressional Badge of Bravery to the family. Barber said the Foundation does great work, but the choice to give Bannon an award is another matter.
“I do not support that Steve Bannon should receive an award or be at the event,” he said. “I, personally, would think he doesn’t deserve an award of any kind.”
He said Bannon is an “advocate of white nationalism” and a “symbol of divisiveness, bigotry and hate,” and inviting him takes away from the Foundation’s work and could cast a shadow over Brian’s memory.
At the event, speakers presented a video and slideshow about Brian’s life, mainly about his work with Border Patrol. Fox News reporter William La Jeunesse talked about the job being a thankless one that secures the nation’s freedom. And Kelli Ward, a former Republican state lawmaker who is now running for Sen. Jeff Flake’s seat, introduced Bannon at the end of the evening.
“If you listen to the mainstream media, you might get the wrong idea about Steve,” she said. “Steve is one of the few people in this world who could actually steal the title from the guy in the Dos Equis commercial as the most interesting man in the world.”
Although Ralph Terry says the group is not political, the evening certainly was. When Ward listed Bannon’s accomplishments, she mentioned Breitbart (the alt-right news outlet where Bannon is executive chairman) as being a “platform that challenged the liberal-dominated mainstream media.”
“Steve has an innate sense of what the grassroots voters want and need,” she said, referring to Bannon as “hand of the king.” (Trump’s the king in this Game of Thrones scenario).
She reminded the crowd that Bannon advised Trump to pull out of the Paris climate accords (to loud applause), renegotiate “new and better” trade deals and “investigating ‘Chiiiiina’ over intellectual property values.” She pronounced China with a mocking drawl, perhaps meant to imitate Trump’s pronunciation of the word.
“Back at Breitbart, Steve is continuing to lead the charge against the Republican establishment, the obstructionist Democrats and the special-interest power brokers in Washington,” she said. “People don’t like that, but I like it.”
The crowd went wild. And when Bannon entered the stage, it was to a standing ovation. The central thrust of Bannon’s speech was that Trump was elected because of his stance on illegal immigration, which Bannon called the biggest issue facing the United States.
“In 2016, Donald Trump cut through the entire best generation of politicians we’d ever seen,” Bannon said about Trump’s primary campaign. “He cut through them like a scythe through grass.”
And the issue that sharpened his scythe, according to Bannon, was the promise of a wall. And Bannon told the crowd last night that he has pushed Trump to keep the momentum focused on “stopping mass illegal immigration and addressing the issue of legal immigration to get our sovereignty back.”
Bannon went on to read a list he called Trump’s 10-point plan: build a “great wall”—an “impenetrable barrier”—on the southern border; end catch and release; allow “zero tolerance for criminal aliens—we will deport them all”; end sanctuary cities; end DACA; suspend visas from countries with no screening; “force countries to take their people back when visas run out”; and a biometric visa systems. The room applauded some more.
Bannon told Trump that if he focused on the 10-point plan during his campaign, he would have “100 percent metaphysical certitude” of winning.
Toward the end of Bannon’s speech, he turned to the investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“President Trump needs your backing now more than ever,” he said. “This nullification project that’s underway, this nullification project that’s trying to take away the 2016 victory from the American people and the Trump supporters, has to be stopped, as much for the people outside protesting tonight. Because if we allow any one sector of our country to nullify a presidential election, we’ll be doing this back and forth for the foreseeable future.”
This article appears in Nov 16-22, 2017.
“It’s unfortunate when any group has to start putting labels on people — ‘white nationalist’, ‘Black Lives Matter’. We all matter”, Ralph Terry said.
Yes, except they are not shooting white nationalists dead in the street for little more than being a white nationalist — although Steve Bannon and his ilk would like nothing more than to pass this false equivalency off as the truth.
Trying to compare the deaths of black people at the hands of various law enforcement agencies to the “plight” of white nationalist is like comparing the stress of Nazi concentration camp guards to the prisoners of those very same camps.
High immigration rates destroy the working class by keeping wages at rock bottom and stressing infrastructure. Voters are waking up to this fact and they don’t want welfare, they want jobs.
Low wage industries have managed to keep people blind to this fact by a tried and true tactic of massive campaign contributions along with dividing the electorate. They have managed to paint anyone who suggests lowering immigration (legal or illegal) as a Nazi and somehow un-American. This has kept workers on the left from waking up to their own interests. Republican politicians can mostly be bought just with the campaign contributions. They throw their base a meaningless bone on illegal immigration enforcement once in a while while keeping immigration rates high. Trump exposed their duplicity and won the presidency by doing it.
The hotel and fast food industries have ridden the gravy train for years with this strategy and made a *lot* of money. We’re on our way to half a billion people in our lifetimes unless Congress actually passes meaningful legislation slowing the flow.
Trying to dress up white nationalism by calling it a jobs program is the work of Bannon…. and people like him need to be called out for it. Bannon doesn’t care about the families of dead BP agents, except that he can use that issue to further his case for discriminating against Mexicans. The Terry Foundation should acknowledge that…
Glad Trump was elected because he will enforce immigration laws! Enforcing U.S Immigration laws and deporting Illegal Aliens is not racist ! The U.S lets in 1 Million immigrants a year! Instead of Mexicans and the Open border group calling people racist because they come to he U.S Illegally steal SSN and IDs (both Felonies) cost the U.S $135 Billion a year , overcrowd schools and hospital they should try respecting U.S laws and stop breaking into they U.S 73% of Illegal Alien households use 1 or more forms of welfare
The Brian Terry Foundation smeared themselves, and Brian Terry’s name, when they invited this racist P.O.S. to our community.
But in some ways, it makes perfect sense. Multiple independent investigations have shown the U.S. Border Patrol to be a profoundly racist institution. It pervades the agency, from the policy decisions at the highest level right down to the individual actions of far too many of the agents on the ground. The ingrained culture is to demonize Mexican immigrants and treat them as the enemy.
From the question of which immigrant demographic to persecute right down to the brown teenager that gets shot in the back as he’s running away, this agency brings shame upon the U.S. and threatens our core constitutional values of liberty for all. Considering that, Steve Bannon–a.k.a. Joseph Goebbels–is the perfect spokesperson.
I am struck by the irony of Breitbart News having the courage to pursue the federal government gun running program, and then when the family of a BP agent killed in the line of duty, awards said newsman, the leftist apologists attack him personally. And the cherry on top is that it all happens on the day when two more BP agents are shot (1 dead) by illegal entrants at the border.
It would be more accurate to charge you as accomplices to murder. I just used a little bit of your own logic.
“The hotel and fast food industries have ridden the gravy train for years with this strategy and made a *lot* of money.”
One of the leaders in this practice is Mr. Trump himself. He brings in all manner of immigrants, bypassing the proper rules of the system. The reason being that he can pay them low wages, giving himself bigger profits. How convenient.
ON APRIL 10, 2006, MORE THAN 10 YEARS AGO…
15 brave community activists had the GUTS to enter Armory Park to confront 15,000 rabid “pro-raza” open border zealots, declare their support for “the wall” and American sovereignty, and burn 2 Mexican flags in spite of wide-spread republican, democrat and community support for decades old “Open Border Policy” to wit:
“To aid and abet, entice and invite and to otherwise encourage the illegal entry of impoverished Mexican citizens for economic and political exploitation.”
And yet these 15 have received no support or acknowledgement from the community for having the courage to stand up in 2006 when it really mattered!!
Trump didn’t define and create the issue which elected him, We few here in Arizona did!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUSrLBt521…
Kelli Ward and Steve Bannon. You can’t make up this level of lunacy, using each other. They dont care one iota about the people of Arizona, the people are just suckers, and pawns for their ambitions, and Michael Ward’s ambitions.
How ironic people are defending illegals on the day after an illegal bashed one of our Border Patrol agents head in with a rock. I call that time to end illegal immigration in the US as we know it.
I thought the BP agents were shot and killed. Turns out they were beaten to death with boulders. Let’s catch the killers.
Undocumented. A nice way of saying illegal.
This week, five illegal aliens ambushed a border patrol agent and murdered him by crushing his skull with rocks.
Democrats oppose border security measures that would stop this from happening.
Because Democrats benefit politically from the country being overrun with illegal aliens.
Hey, Tucson Weekly:
You’ve been excoriating me ever since 2006. Read the comments up above, “the times they are a-changing.”
The time has come to have an “in depth” interview with THE central figure of the local opposition to OPEN BORDER POLICY, which has destroyed so many lives, dont’cha think?
Warden, “The Notorious Mexican Flag Burner” who btw has opposed the financial and political exploitation of the Mexican poor ever since 2005.
What I don’t understand is what these stooges have against a secure border.