&#8220;Hamilton&#8221; Broadway musical producer Jeffrey Seller announced he’s canceled upcoming shows at The Kennedy Center because President Donald Trump terminated most members of the Board of Trustees — including Chairman David Rubenstein — and had taken over the role himself.
In a lengthy rant on the <a href="https://x.com/HamiltonMusical/status/1897414367630540928">X</a> “Hamilton” account, the producer wrote that, “Political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy. These basic concepts of freedom are at the very heart of ‘Hamilton.’ However, some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics. The Kennedy Center is one such institution.”
“The Kennedy Center was meant to be for all Americans, a place where we could all come together in celebration of the arts. Politics have never affected the presentation of thousands of shows and the display of extraordinary visual arts,” he added, claiming that in recent weeks “decades” of “neutrality” at the center had “been destroyed” by Trump.
“&#8217;Given these recent actions, our show simply can not, in good conscience, participate and be part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center,” Seller continued. “Therefore, we have canceled the third engagement of ‘Hamilton’ at the Kennedy Center, originally scheduled for March 3 through April 26, 2026.”
The “Hamilton” producer claimed the cancellation was also a business decision, suggesting that under Trump’s leadership “hundreds of employees of ‘Hamilton’” could be “financially and personally” effected “if the new leadership suddenly cancelled or re-negotiated our engagement.&#8221;
In response to the announcement, Ric Grenell, who is serving as the interim president of the Kennedy Center following the termination of Deborah Rutter, posted on <a href="https://x.com/richardgrenell/status/1897420465817182505?s=46&amp;t=o-U3qwC25WnWaylJ0oeG7Q">X</a> that this decision was a “publicity stunt that will backfire.”
“Let’s be clear on the facts. Seller and<a href="https://x.com/Lin_Manuel"> @Lin_Manuel</a> first went to the New York Times before they came to the Kennedy Center with their announcement that they can’t be in the same room with Republicans,” Grenell wrote. 
“The Arts are for everyone — not just for the people who Lin likes and agrees with,” he added. “The American people need to know that<a href="https://x.com/Lin_Manuel"> @Lin_Manuel</a> is intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically. It’s clear he and Sellers don’t want Republicans going to their shows. Americans see you, Lin.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Let’s be clear on the facts.
Seller and <a href="https://twitter.com/Lin_Manuel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Lin_Manuel</a> first went to the New York Times before they came to the Kennedy Center with their announcement that they can’t be in the same room with Republicans.
This is a publicity stunt that will backfire.
The Arts are for everyone -… <a href="https://t.co/K56LjofULp">https://t.co/K56LjofULp</a>
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1897420465817182505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
The move by the “Hamilton” producer is only the latest fallout from Trump’s changes at the Kennedy Center. Hollywood star Issa Rae previously backed out of performing her one night show at The Kennedy Center after Trump became the chairman of the board. Producer-writer Shonda Rhimes announced she had resigned as treasurer from the Kennedy Center board because of Trump’s involvement.
Her resignation was followed by singer-songwriter and former frontman of Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds, who announced he also was out as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) following the move by Trump, The <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/ben-folds-resigns-nso-trump-1236134722/">Hollywood Reporter</a> noted. The Kennedy Center oversees the NSO, as well as the Washington National Opera, THR noted.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/actress-issa-rae-backs-out-of-performing-at-kennedy-center-after-trump-becomes-chair" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Actress Issa Rae Backs Out Of Performing At Kennedy Center After Trump Becomes Chair</a>

Lin-Manuel Miranda

‘Hamilton’ Producer Cancels Shows At Kennedy Center, Blames Trump

Celebrities

Democrats

Donald Trump

Entertainment

Hamilton

Hollywood

Kennedy Center

McClatchy DC White House correspondent Alex Roarty said that even in the days following the anniversary of the Capitol Hill riot, a focus group of moderate voters had no real reaction to the mention of &#8220;January 6th.&#8221;
&#8220;Watched 2 focus groups w/moderate voters last night, put on by a liberal group. Moderator asked 1st group (five women) about Jan 6th. Long pause followed, before one of the women asked what he meant. Invoking &#8216;Jan. 6&#8217; didn&#8217;t immediately mean anything, even days after anniversary,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/Alex_Roarty/status/1480938114528993283">Roarty</a> began a Twitter thread on the subject.
According to Roarty, some clarification and even direct questions about the riot did not steer the female focus group in a direction that was more favorable for Democrats — in fact, it led to several in the group criticizing Democrats for taking the pageantry too far as they commemorated the <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/qanon-shaman-sentenced-to-41-months-in-prison-over-capitol-riot/">anniversary</a> of the attack with a <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/nancy-pelosis-january-6-grief-session-brings-broadway-tunes-equity-and-a-rewrite-of-americas-ideals/">Broadway performance</a>, a candlelight vigil, and a <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/588592-pelosi-leads-moment-of-silence-for-jan-6-with-no-republicans-except-cheneys">moment of silence</a> on the House floor.
&#8220;The conversation didn&#8217;t get much better from there for Dems, in either focus group,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/Alex_Roarty/status/1480939096679849986">Roarty explained</a>. &#8220;Once the convo got going, it was clear Jan. 6 hadn&#8217;t been memory holed by the 1st group. But one woman said flat out it wasn&#8217;t she was worried about anymore compared to other concerns. And two others, after agreeing how awful the attack was, said they thought Biden and Democrats had gone too far in the way they talked about last week on the anniversary. One of the women said she thought they had over-embellished it.&#8221;
The second focus group, consisting of moderate men, appeared to yield similarly disappointing results as far as Democrats were concerned.
&#8220;The 2nd group, this time five moderate men, had a similar reaction (though I&#8217;ll include one important caveat later). None of them mentioned Jan 6 when prompted broadly about what news they had been paying attention to lately, mentioning Manchin, Arbery verdict, etc,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/Alex_Roarty/status/1480939612444975107">Roarty</a> noted, <a href="https://twitter.com/Alex_Roarty/status/1480940174007799810">adding</a>, &#8220;Later, when asked specifically about how POTUS and Dems marked the anniversary, two men jumped in pretty eagerly to talk about how Biden had made a mistake looking backward instead of trying to move the country forward. They expressed a feeling he had politicized a tragedy.&#8221;
&#8220;One of the participants would later add that they also resented how reporters who were there personalized their experience,&#8221; he continued.
Roarty said that the consensus at the end was that the riot had been terrible and had certainly <a href="https://twitter.com/Alex_Roarty/status/1480940687432601607">raised concerns</a> about the future of American democracy — and several agreed that President Biden&#8217;s speech recognizing the anniversary had been appropriate — and both groups voiced concern that the people responsible for the attack on the Capitol had not yet been held responsible.
&#8220;One man — who was clearly very far from a liberal — said he abandoned the GOP after Jan 6 and thought the way Biden handled the anniversary was fine,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/Alex_Roarty/status/1480941095487954944">he added</a>. &#8220;So people thought what happened on Jan 6 was awful and raised serious questions about the country&#8217;s direction. But they didn&#8217;t all necessarily connect it with the GOP/Trump.&#8221;
Both groups, Roarty said, consisted of &#8220;soft Biden voters&#8221; who had supported Joe Biden but not former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — or &#8220;soft Trump voters&#8221; who had supported former President Donald Trump in 2020 but said they regretted doing so.

Vigil for January 6th Anniversary

Moderate Focus Groups Have No Reaction To ‘January 6,’ Say Democrats ‘Over-Embellished’ Anniversary

Capitol Riot

Joe Biden

Nancy Pelosi

Ron DeSantis

Just as The Daily Wire&#8217;s Matt Walsh <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1478772547286179847?s=20">predicted</a>, January 6, 2022, has been one of the most insufferable days in American history, but it is unlikely that Walsh or anybody else thought that show tunes in the name of &#8220;equity&#8221; would ring out from the nation&#8217;s capital on Thursday. For some reason, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi  (D-CA) thought it was necessary to have Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda and several of his castmates from the hit show &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; perform a song via Zoom. As Pelosi put it, artists could just &#8220;connect in ways&#8221; better than anybody else could and she was thrilled to have them for the somber occasion. The virtual sing-a-long came right before a conversation on how to &#8220;preserve the narrative of January 6th.&#8221; Manuel&#8217;s performance did not really touch upon January 6, but with it came a bit of revisionist history.
&#8220;To begin the conversation, we&#8217;re privileged to have a contribution from one of the great creative talents of our time — Lin-Manuel Miranda,&#8221; Pelosi stated. &#8220;May his beautiful words be an inspiration to us. Among the words he said, and the music, &#8216;We&#8217;ll make it right for you. If we lay a strong enough foundation, we&#8217;ll pass it on to you and we&#8217;ll give the world to you.&#8217; Lin-Manuel, and his father, and the Hamilton singers who we&#8217;ll hear from said they were all honored to participate today.&#8221;
It is unclear how such banal language was inspiring. Nonetheless, Miranda brought forth a message that actually altered America&#8217;s founding ideals along with an irritating song.
&#8220;A new year brings hope for the future and energy to face the tasks ahead of us and a renewed promise to strengthen the foundations of our democracy,&#8221; Manuel said in a pre-recorded video. &#8220;We are all stewards of the American experiment working to pass down to our children and grandchildren a more perfect union that treats all its citizens with fairness and equity.&#8221;
Of course, the United States of America was not founded upon &#8220;fairness and equity&#8221; rather it was built on the ideal of equality and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Manuel&#8217;s belief that our foundation is something other than that indicates the Left&#8217;s attempt to shift America towards a country that is not in line with our history.
The difference between and &#8220;equity&#8221; and &#8220;equality&#8221; — while sounding similar — makes all the difference in the world.
Here&#8217;s how the volunteer group <a href="https://unitedwaynca.org/blog/equity-vs-equality/">United Way</a> explains that difference between the two, as they also believe equity is the virtue America should aspire to:
<blockquote>Equity recognizes each person has different circumstances and needs, and therefore different groups of people need different resources and opportunities allocated to them in order to thrive.
Equality is giving everyone the exact same resources across the board, regardless of individuals’ or groups of people’s actual needs or opportunities/resources already provided to them.</blockquote>
The United Way even argues that &#8220;there is not a one-size-fits-all solution (equality) to the problems we see in the world, but there’s a right-size solution for each individual’s needs (equity).&#8221;
In other words, it is no longer enough that everybody is equal under the law or endowed with inalienable rights in America — there must be a concerted effort to redistribute wealth, alter standards, and punish the successful so that everybody can have an equal outcome.
That minor word change reveals the belief of the Democratic party and their allies like Manuel that certain Americans cannot be successful no matter how hard they try because privilege and systemic discrimination hold them back.
The Left now believes it is the government&#8217;s job to pass on a world of &#8220;fairness and equity&#8221; to the next generation so that we can alleviate suffering. This is code for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-medical-association-releases-plan-to-embed-racial-justice-in-medical-profession">new discrimination against white people</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/nine-theories-of-progressive-power-weath-distribution-tax-socialism-biden-aoc-11635705664">socialist policies</a>, and changing the definition of achievement in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-the-name-of-equity-virginia-county-wants-to-ban-homework-grades-and-other-standards">academia and elsewhere</a>.
This entire movement goes firmly against what most Americans, even the Democratic Party, has held as the American Dream until fairly recently. Even President Barack Obama used to disagree with that message of equity.
During Obama&#8217;s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election-obama-speech-text/text-obamas-re-election-victory-speech-in-chicago-idINDEE8A60BA20121107">2012 victory speech</a>, the former president said, &#8220;I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you&#8217;re willing to work hard, it doesn&#8217;t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or who you love. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether you&#8217;re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you&#8217;re willing to try.&#8221;
Obama&#8217;s speech is in direct opposition to what the Democratic Party believes currently. Manuel&#8217;s performance at the capital is simply more evidence that the Left is bastardizing our heritage not only with new terms but with entirely new ideas and presenting them as if they have been commonplace since 1776.
After the performance, Pelosi seemed starstruck, stating, &#8220;Somehow the arts have a way of saying things in a way that connects that we cannot do in any other way. And that&#8217;s why I thought it was really important to have the arts lead us in this discussion and the further discussion with some of the most outstanding artists, writers of our time.&#8221;
Indeed, with charm and musical talent, Miranda shielded the Democrats&#8217; goal of embedding equity — not equality — in American society in a way that Pelosi and her gang never could have dreamed of doing.
A portion Pelosi&#8217;s and Miranda&#8217;s remarks can be seen here:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Hamilton Cast Members Sing &quot;Dear Theodosia&quot; on January 6th Anniversary." width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EDl2yInP_xo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The views expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Untitled design (59)

Nancy Pelosi’s January 6 Grief Session Brings Broadway Tunes, Equity, And A Rewrite Of America’s Ideals

January 6

Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday floated the idea of &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; creator Lin-Manuel Miranda writing a musical about his Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen.
“We might have to ask Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the musical about the first secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton, to write another musical about the first woman secretary of the Treasury, Yellen,” said a chuckling Biden during a press conference rolling out his economic team. &#8220;So that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m working on right now, Janet.&#8221;
“Janet is one of the most important economic thinkers of our time,” Biden continued. “She has spent her career focused on employment and the dignity of work. &#8230; She understands what it means to people and their communities when they have good, decent jobs &#8230; and respected across party lines and around the world, by Main Street and Wall Street. An educator, a mentor.”
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Calling <a href="https://twitter.com/Lin_Manuel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Lin_Manuel</a> 👇🏿 <a href="https://t.co/wbzbfUbN7e">pic.twitter.com/wbzbfUbN7e</a>
&mdash; Karine Jean-Pierre (@K_JeanPierre) <a href="https://twitter.com/K_JeanPierre/status/1333907142970109961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Yellen, if confirmed, will be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its 231-year history. She has also served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and as chair of the Federal Reserve.
Yellen was one of six people Biden announced for his economic team earlier this week.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-biden-announces-6-new-major-picks-for-his-economic-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>:
<blockquote>Joe Biden announced early on Monday morning six people that he has selected to be key members of his economic team, stating that they were “crisis-tested” and claiming that they could “lift America out of the current economic downturn and build back better.”
“As we get to work to control the virus, this is the team that will deliver immediate economic relief for the American people during this economic crisis and help us build our economy back better than ever,” Biden said. “This team is comprised of respected and tested groundbreaking public servants who will help the communities hardest hit by COVID-19 and address the structural inequities in our economy. They will work tirelessly to ensure every American enjoys a fair return for their work and an equal chance to get ahead, and that our businesses can thrive and outcompete the rest of the world.”</blockquote>
&#8220;Hamilton,&#8221; a musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton, proved to be a major hit when it premiered on Broadway in 2015, with many shows selling out months in advance. The show received 16 Tony Award nominations and won 11, and also nabbed the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Miranda and other members of the &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; cast have been outspoken supporters of Biden, with several of them having held a <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/520708-hamilton-cast-to-reunite-for-biden-fundraiser" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">virtual fundraiser</a> for him during the campaign. By contrast, they have also been outspoken detractors of President Donald Trump and his surrogates, perhaps most notably when they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hamilton-cast-and-audience-boo-and-bully-vp-elect-john-nolte" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">scolded</a> Vice President Mike Pence from the stage when he went to see their show shortly after the 2016 presidential election.
“We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” one of the actors told Pence during the curtain call. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf all of us.”
Related: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nzOIjyUAAE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">HAMILTON: Brilliant or SJW Trash?</a>

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Janet Yellen

Biden Suggests Lin-Manuel Miranda Write Musical About Janet Yellen

Broadway

Janet Yellen

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Colin Kaepernick tweeted: “We [meaning black people] reject your celebration of white supremacy &amp; look forward to liberation for all.”
On Monday, Disney announced that it had signed a commitment to develop content with Kaepernick, which would include potential shows on Hulu, movies with Pixar, and an ESPN docuseries about Kaepernick’s career.
Nikole Hannah-Jones is the New York Times race hustler-slash-reporter who engineered the dishonest 1619 Project, which falsely claims the United States was founded on principles of slavery and racism. She says she’d be “honored” to have the recent riots and looting called the “1619 Riots.”
Now Oprah Winfrey and movie studio Lions Gate are partnering with Hannah-Jones to transform 1619 “into an expansive portfolio of films, television series and documentaries, unscripted programming and other forms of entertainment,” according to the industry website Deadline.
But so what? Conservatives have “God is Not Dead 16: This Time God is Really Not Dead,” with even more smiling piety than the last sequel, and absolutely no cussing or sex for two hours or until the audience dies of self-satisfaction, whichever comes first.
And we have Ayn Rand. In fact, those on the Right who believe in the philosophy of Ayn Rand should be delighted for Kaepernick and Hannah-Jones. They’re living the Randian dream: making big money through their creations with no regard for the objections of the little people who believe in things like moral truth.
Those conservatives, on the other hand, who have misgivings about ignorant creeps burning down our cities, might ask themselves if maybe value-free capitalism and reality-free Christianity are not a winning cultural strategy for the Right. Because, if the rioting 1619 creeps are a product of sixty years of leftist propaganda, just think what the country will look like twenty years from now when Colin and Nikole get through with it.
But there’s a different message out there: “Hamilton,” the Tony-winning Broadway hip-hop musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“Hamilton” is spectacularly good. I hate hip-hop music, but Miranda is a superb lyricist with a real understanding of the American musical stage. The show is historically accurate (for a musical). It has brilliantly etched characterizations. And it includes two numbers — &#8220;Helpless&#8221; and &#8220;It&#8217;s Quiet Uptown&#8221; — which are as good as anything I’ve seen onstage, and I’ve seen everything.
“Hamilton” is also the anti-1619. It not only portrays the founding fathers as people of color singing songs in traditionally black genres like hip-hop and R &amp; B, it shows them as young, scrappy black men ready to seize the historical moment and take their shot at greatness.
In other words, Miranda, of Puerto Rican descent, is saying that U.S. history is his history too. When you become an American, you inherit it.
I know how he feels. A Jewish kid growing up in the sixties, I was twelve before I realized I wasn’t descended from Ben Franklin and George Washington. My teachers called them our forefathers, so I figured I was part of the family.
That’s called assimilation: you adopt a grand history of ideas as a dominant over-structure to the history of your particular tribe. As an American, you become the idea-descendant of the Founding Fathers.
“Hamilton,” then, is the opposite of 1619. 1619 says America is inherently, unchangeably antithetical to people of color. “Hamilton” says, no, we can join in the greatness too. The Left hates this. They tell us that assimilation is a racist code word. Why should we adopt the ideas of dead white males, they ask, even as they are turning on a light bulb or driving a car or using a computer, which are also the ideas of dead white males.
In fact, assimilation is the opposite of racism — that’s why the racist Left hates it. Assimilation is adopting the best ideas no matter who thought of them. Assimilation says freedom is good, and if the British and their colonists figured out how to bottle it, pass the bottle. It’s my bottle now too.
Conversely, the Left says: if whites discovered fire, we’ll sit in the dark.
Assimilation was not always open to blacks, but it is now, and many of them know it. You can tell they know it because it also inspired another popular cultural work, “Get Out,” a horror movie in which a black man about to marry into a WASP family discovers that blacks who assimilate have their souls stolen.
I’m familiar with that fear too. When I discovered I believed in Jesus Christ, I had to ask myself: Is this faith, or just another stage in the process of assimilation? I had to think hard before I was certain I was acting from my authentic self.
We need more “Hamiltons,” a lot more. We need more conservatives who recognize what “Hamilton” is. We need more real talk from conservatives about assimilation: its beauty — the fact that it elevates you above tribe into a community of great ideas — and its difficulties — the fact that it inevitably draws you away from your blood ancestry and culture.
Instead we waffle between aesthetic garbage like Ayn Rand and “God is Not Dead.” We allow Colin Kaepernick and Nikole Hannah-Jones to spew their racist hatred into the cultural atmosphere unchecked.
We have a tough election coming up. We may well lose in November. But if we lose the fight for the culture, we’ll lose everything forever.

KLAVAN: ‘Hamilton’ Is The Anti-1619 Project

1619 Project

Colin Kaepernick

Conservatism

Leftism

Nikole Hannah-Jones

Five years ago, “Hamilton” was the musical of the decade, praised by virtually all with little descent. It swept the 2016 Tony Awards and probably made an appearance on your social media accounts from friends who bragged about seeing it live.
But five years is a long time, and even though the founding fathers were already pariahs on college campuses at the time “Hamilton” was released, they were still revered in the culture at large. That is no longer the case.
It is now 2020 and the media has taken cues from violent rioters and protesters that the founding fathers are no longer welcome in the history books. Some conservatives pointed out that means that the beloved Hamilton would have to be canceled – and many activists agreed.
On Twitter, users voiced their concerns over Hamilton’s “problematic” narrative, which critics claim lionized slave-owning founding fathers and played with the truth of history – in a musical where people portraying the founding fathers danced and rapped.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the writer and star of Hamilton, participated in a July 3 viewing of the movie version of the play, responding and reacting along with others on Twitter. Miranda, however, received enough criticism of the show to set his Twitter account to private. On July 6, Miranda finally addressed the controversy surrounding Hamilton, saying, “All the criticisms are valid.”
Miranda made the comments while responding to Buzzfeed and Netflix host Tracy Clayton’s criticism of Hamilton in which she said: “im late w the hamilton criticism stuff &amp; im clearly biased but.. i really like that this conversation is happening. hamilton the play and the movie were given to us in two different worlds &amp; our willingness to interrogate things in this way feels like a clear sign of change.”
“Appreciate you so much, <a href="https://twitter.com/brokeymcpoverty?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1280120414279290881%7Ctwgr%5E&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oprahmag.com%2Fentertainment%2Ftv-movies%2Fa33216431%2Fhamilton-cancelled-lin-manuel-miranda%2F">@brokeymcpoverty</a>. All the criticisms are valid. The sheer tonnage of complexities &amp; failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game,” Miranda responded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Appreciate you so much, <a href="https://twitter.com/brokeymcpoverty?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@brokeymcpoverty</a>. All the criticisms are valid. The sheer tonnage of complexities &amp; failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game. <a href="https://t.co/mjhU8sXS1U">https://t.co/mjhU8sXS1U</a>
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) <a href="https://twitter.com/Lin_Manuel/status/1280120414279290881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Alexander Hamilton was an abolitionist, but he, too, apparently must be canceled because he had a relationship with other founding fathers who did own slaves. Further problematic for Miranda’s musical is that while slavery is a recurring theme in the performance, there is no slave character.
The Washington Post – named for founding father George Washington – published <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/07/03/hamilton-slavery-washington-jefferson/">an article</a> critical of Hamilton on July 3 titled, “Hamilton despised slavery but didn’t confront George Washington or other slaveholders.”
The article mentions the racial protests taking place across the country and the destruction of statues dedicated to historical figures who also owned slaves as a backdrop to criticize the musical. “[I]t might feel good to watch “Hamilton” and think of an ethnically diverse, hip-hop past. The reality, of course, was way more complicated,” the outlet reported. Hamilton wasn’t forceful enough in his beliefs against slavery, critics allege, so he is just as ripe for canceling as the men who actually owned slaves and who are being erased despite their other accomplishments.

‘Hamilton’ Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda Responds To ‘Cancel Hamilton’ Criticism

Cancel Culture

&#8220;Hamilton&#8221; is under fire from left-leaning activists who say the Tony award-winning musical is a relic from a less-woke era that glorifies a slave-trader and other founding fathers who have recently fallen out of favor.
The musical is now a feature film, released last week on the Disney+ streaming network to record-breaking viewership and rave reviews, but activists contend that times have changed from when the musical first premiered on Broadway, and now, after the death of George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department, Americans are &#8220;reckoning&#8221; with the problematic traits of founders like Alexander Hamilton.
&#8220;[T]he politician&#8217;s links with the slave trade have resurfaced following &#8216;Hamilton&#8217;s&#8217; release, with the hashtag #CancelHamilton this week gaining traction on social media,&#8221; <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/chris-jones/ct-ent-hamilton-ends-impact-0105-20200103-7wkrzvdjdjgkngxe4yjqi2z3re-story.html">the National reported over the weekend</a>. &#8220;While Hamilton, portrayed as a scrappy young immigrant in the eponymous musical, is not believed to have directly had enslaved people in his service, he managed slave sales for his wife’s family, the Schuylers, according to historians.&#8221;
One Harvard professor noted to the National that &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; puts a gloss over the life of the United States&#8217; first Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuit of a modern audience: &#8220;He was not an abolitionist. He bought and sold slaves for his in-laws, and opposing slavery was never at the forefront of his agenda.&#8221;
Some social media users were blunt.
&#8220;Can we cancel Hamilton for glorifying our racist founding fathers and painting America as a good country,&#8221; one asked, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8492387/Backlash-Hamilton-musical-revisionist-history-days-debuted-Disney-amid-BLM-protests.html">according to the Daily Mail</a>.
&#8220;Can&#8217;t believe Disney is showing a show about a slave trader in times like this. Also, the actors aren&#8217;t the same color as the people they are portraying. How dare they,&#8221; fumed another.
&#8220;Are y’all ready to talk about how problematic Hamilton is?&#8221; posted another. &#8220;Lin Manuel Miranda created a piece of work that used hip hop (a genre created by black people) to tell the story of colonizers and slave owners.&#8221;
Others were more thoughtful, pointing out that, in previous, less-woke lives, they were certainly fans of &#8220;Hamilton,&#8221; even though scholars have long pointed out that the musical is riddled with historical inaccuracies and convenient revisionism. Now, though, in a nation grappling with the implications of institutionalized racism, their appreciation for Lin-Manuel Miranda&#8217;s signature work has been tarnished.
&#8220;hope everyone does some research about Hamilton the musical, especially with it coming out this friday. i get that it&#8217;s an enjoyable musical, but try to put things into perspective after doing research about why a musical about slave owners isn&#8217;t the greatest thing to support rn,&#8221; noted one.
Miranda, for his part, still feels &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; has something to say to the current moment.
&#8220;When you write a musical that brushes against sort of the origins of this country, it&#8217;s always going to be relevant,&#8221; he told NPR over the weekend. &#8220;The fights we had at the origin are the fights we&#8217;re still having. I&#8217;ve always said that slavery is the original sin of this country.&#8221;
Even if leftists succeed in making &#8220;#CancelHamilton&#8221; trend, it&#8217;s unlikely they&#8217;ll do much to damage the smash Broadway hit. <a href="https://www.broadwayworld.com/grosses/HAMILTON">Broadway.com reports</a> that the show has grossed an astounding $650,000,000 in ticket sales since it opened in 2015.
Disney+ isn&#8217;t likely to pull the film version of the live musical, either. Although Disney has yet to release any official streaming totals, &#8220;the Disney+ app was downloaded 513,323 globally and 266,084 times in the United States from Friday, July 3 through Sunday, July 6th,&#8221; <a href="https://decider.com/2020/07/06/how-many-people-watched-hamilton-disney-plus/">according to Decider</a> &#8212; a 72% increase over average, and a definite win for the struggling entertainment conglomerate.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

‘Cancel Hamilton’ Trends As Leftists Demand Disney Pull Musical That ‘Glorifies Slave Trader’

Black Lives Matter

Racism

&#8220;Hamilton,&#8221; the widely acclaimed musical about the &#8220;ten-dollar founding father,&#8221; Alexander Hamilton, may have had a record-breaking Disney+ debut, but it&#8217;s far from woke enough, it seems, for some leftists, who blame the production, and its creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, for ignoring real-world violence.
Both Miranda and &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; creator Jeffrey Seller were forced to apologize over the weekend for failing to adequately address the &#8220;Black Lives Matter&#8221; movement and for &#8220;taking part in the &#8216;moral failure&#8217; of not speaking up amid the ongoing protests taking place across the nation over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lin-manuel-miranda-hamilton-producer-apologize-silence-protests-1296597?fbclid=IwAR1vCKcgRmmmeLFpbf4TCIKbGoSfetK-svSJG1d9C4DA7ExNbR_QjK_JoS0">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
&#8220;We spoke out on the day of the Pulse shooting. We spoke out when Vice President Mike Pence came to our show 10 days after the election. That we have not yet firmly spoken the inarguable truth that Black Lives Matter and denounced systematic racism and white supremacy from our official ‘Hamilton’ channels is a moral failure on our part,&#8221; Miranda said in a video posted over the weekend to his Twitter account. &#8220;As the writer of the show, I take responsibility and apologize for my part in this moral failure.&#8221;
He added that he was sorry for &#8220;not pushing harder and faster for us to speak these self-evident truths under the ‘Hamilton’ banner which has come to mean so much to so many of you.&#8221;
&#8220;&#8216;Hamilton&#8217; doesn&#8217;t exist without the black and brown artists who created and revolutionized and changed the world through the culture, music, and language of hip-hop. Literally, the idea of the show doesn&#8217;t exist without the brilliant black and brown artists in our cast, crew, and production team who breathe life into this story every time it&#8217;s performed,&#8221; he said.
Seller also apologized in his own social media message. &#8220;I&#8217;m not a politician. I&#8217;m not an activist. I&#8217;m not an expert. I&#8217;m a theater producer. But what I realize today is most importantly I&#8217;m an American citizen, and silence equals complicity and I apologize for my silence thus far,&#8221; he said.
The musical, of course, is a retelling of Alexander Hamilton&#8217;s life, with a focus on viewing Hamilton&#8217;s life through a more modern lens, adding his status as an immigrant and a fledgling abolitionist to the more recognizable narrative about Hamilton&#8217;s life. It was once required viewing for many on the Left, who liked its woke-er, revisionist retelling of the events of the American Revolution.
Now, though, even &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; is not woke enough for many activists, who seem to believe the musical glorifies a moment in history that has since been declared problematic.
&#8220;Peace activist&#8221; Ajamu Baracka attacked Miranda openly on his own Twitter account using a racial slur.
&#8220;Lin-Manuel Miranda is a Puerto Rican Uncle Tom who instead of fighting for independence makes feel-good revisionism for white liberals. He is pathetic,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/ajamubaraka/status/1279552408062959622">Baracka said</a>.
&#8220;As soon as his play started getting sycophantic admiration from the ruling class, I instinctively stayed the hell away from his play, especially when they gave a private performance to Clinton donors. I never watched his play and I don’t care about being in his little club,&#8221; another Twitter critic noted.
&#8220;Reassuring liberals is a lucrative career,&#8221; added another.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Lin Manuel Miranda

Leftists Slam ‘Hamilton,’ Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda For ‘Silence’ On Black Lives Matter, Historical ‘Revisionism’

One of Disney Plus’ biggest attractions opened just in time for Independence Day.
The streaming channel debuted the Tony Award winning production “Hamilton” on July 3.
The hip-hop musical is hailed as a creative modern retelling of Alexander Hamilton’s journey to becoming a Founding Father of the U.S. Created by composer, playwright, performer, and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton won 11 Tony awards in 2016 as well as the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
Viewers <a href="https://www.cnet.com/how-to/hamilton-coming-to-disney-plus-july-3-but-you-cant-stream-with-a-free-trial-how-to-watch/">can’t even leverage a free Disney Plus trial</a> to see it. It’s full price or bust.
But wait…
We’ve spent the last month seeing American statues spray-painted or toppled. Confederate symbols got thrown into the circular file along with the president who <a href="https://www.insider.com/boston-removing-statue-lincoln-standing-over-freed-black-man-2020-7">fought a Civil War to free American slaves</a>.
Even Mt. Rushmore is under attack, both by Native American activists and The New York Times.
As the 1619 Project bravely taught us, America was built by slaves in order to preserve and protect slavery. It’s already been decided that “<a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/gal-gadot-imagine-fallout/">Imagine</a>” should be the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/06/26/activists-change-national-anthem-to-john-lennons-imagine/">new national anthem.</a>
So how can woke Americans watch Lin-Manuel Miranda and co. pay tribute to the Founding Fathers?
Sure, “Hamilton” features people of color playing Caucasian leaders like the title character, George Washington, and Aaron Burr. The color-blind casting proved a welcome twist when the show first debuted in 2015.
It was woke … for its time. Today? That’s hardly a defense.
This racist nation shouldn’t be celebrated in song, let alone via an award-winning musical honoring its founders. Is there a better way to heal the nation than by demanding Disney Plus remove “Hamilton” as quickly as it unveils it? No warning label could address a production dedicated to slave owners, a la HBO Max’s treatment of “Gone With the Wind.”
The production’s unwoke agenda is hardly new. Harvard Law School’s Annette Gordon-Reed <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/10/correcting-hamilton/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CHe%20bought%20and%20sold%20slaves,having%20a%20president%20for%20life.%E2%80%9D">sounded the alarm</a> four years ago on the subject.
The show portrays Hamilton as a “young, scrappy, and hungry” immigrant (he was born on the Caribbean Island of Nevis, but qualified as a U.S. citizen when the Constitution was adopted), an egalitarian, and a passionate abolitionist.
All of this is wrong, Gordon-Reed said.
“He bought and sold slaves for his in-laws, and opposing slavery was never at the forefront of his agenda,” she said.
“He was not a champion of the little guy, like the show portrays,” she said. “He was elitist. He was in favor of having a president for life.”
It gets worse.
“In the musical, only Jefferson is shown as a slave holder,” said Gordon-Reed, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for her book on the family of Sally Hemings, slave and mistress to Jefferson. “But Madison owned slaves too, and so did George Washington.”
Black Lives Matters didn’t rise up following the killing of George Floyd only to see Americans celebrate the Founding Fathers anew. And Disney had been working so hard to be socially conscious. The company <a href="https://insidethemagic.net/2020/06/disney-video-black-lives-matter-ky1/">released a video</a> shortly after Floyd’s murder <a href="https://insidethemagic.net/2020/06/disney-black-lives-matter-kc1/">supporting BLM.</a>
We just learned the<a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-to-paint-black-lives-matter-on-sides-of-courts-at-disney-per-report/"> words “Black Lives Matter” will be painted</a> on the three NBA basketball courts at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.
Airing “Hamilton” represents a monumental step backward.
All of this, of course, assumes BLM, and its many supporters, are both consistent and logical in their quest to fix our broken country; that they have the country’s best interests at heart, not a political agenda with dubious goals, at best.
Right?
If that wasn’t true, though, our fearless mainstream media would have warned us already.
A version of this article appears on <a href="http://HollywoodInToto.com">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.

TOTO: Shouldn’t ‘Hamilton’ Get Canceled Next?

Disney

Rioters

A group of historians believe Lin-Manuel Miranda&#8217;s now-famous musical, &#8220;Hamilton,&#8221; simply isn&#8217;t woke enough, and they&#8217;ve penned a play in response which they believe will help &#8220;educate&#8221; the Broadway star about the Founding Father he white-washed.
A University of California Berkeley professor says it&#8217;s now his mission to battle the cultural forces of Miranda&#8217;s popular &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; musical, which has had a record-breaking run on Broadway and is now touring cities internationally. Miranda&#8217;s version of the Founding Father &#8212; though very &#8220;woke&#8221; in its own right &#8212; glazes over the historical Hamilton&#8217;s more &#8220;problematic&#8221; aspects, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/ct-ent-historians-hamilton-musical-20190204-story.html">according to an interview in the Chicago Tribune</a>.
Professor Ishmael Reed&#8217;s new play, &#8220;The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda,&#8221; is, he says, a &#8220;take down&#8221; of Miranda&#8217;s historical hero.
The work, the Tribune says, &#8220;is an uncompromising take-down of &#8216;Hamilton,&#8217; reminding viewers of the Founding Father&#8217;s complicity in slavery and his war on Native Americans.&#8221;
&#8220;My goal is that this be a counter-narrative to the text that has been distributed to thousands of students throughout the country,&#8221; Reed added.
Miranda has admitted that his Alexander Hamilton, a portrayal based on Ron Chernow&#8217;s best-selling biography, is a partially fictional character, and that his score takes significant liberties with Hamilton&#8217;s background, filling in the blanks in Hamilton&#8217;s past and editing Hamilton&#8217;s trials and tribulations down to what can fit in a 2.5-hour Broadway production.
To help fans of the show get a clearer idea of Alexander Hamilton&#8217;s life, producers of &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; have coordinated a traveling museum exhibit on the life and times of the real Hamilton, which will follow the show&#8217;s traveling company across the country. The exhibit will open first in Chicago next month.
But Reed argues that &#8220;Miranda got Hamilton all wrong &#8212; the Founding Father wasn&#8217;t progressive at all, his actual role as a slave owner has been whitewashed and the pro-immigrant figure onstage hides the fact that he was, in fact, an anti-immigration elitist,&#8221; and that Miranda&#8217;s portrayal is actually dangerous in that it elevates a historical figure who should be despised to a position of relevance and respect.
In his version, Reed has the ghosts of Native Americans, slaves, and and indentured servants visit Miranda and biographer Ron Chernow in the style of Charles Dickens&#8217; &#8220;A Christmas Carol&#8221; to correct the record on the Founding Father. Reed takes aim not just at Hamilton, but at the Schyler family, which Hamilton marries into, and accuses Miranda and Chernow of running a &#8220;good hustle&#8221; to hide what one Reed-supportive historian termed, &#8220;the white supremacist origins of our country.&#8221;
Reed&#8217;s play has been read a handful of times in off-off-Broadway theaters, and he hopes to bring the show to a more public location soon.

Historians Worried ‘Hamilton’ Isn’t Woke Enough Pen ‘Response Play’

The Musical

White Supremacy

On Sunday, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and original star of &#8220;Hamilton,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6586917/Our-current-president-lies-easy-breathe-air-Lin-Manuel-Miranda-slams-Trump.html">vented his fury</a> at President Trump after Trump had targeted Democrats visiting Puerto Rico and seeing a performance of the musical while the federal government was partially shut down.
Miranda tweeted, &#8220;Your occasional reminder that our current president lies as easy as you and I breathe air. Every day, all day, reflexively.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Your occasional reminder that our current president lies as easy as you and I breathe air. 
Every day, all day, reflexively.
&#8212; Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) <a href="https://twitter.com/Lin_Manuel/status/1084479025966395393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
President Trump has roundly criticized the Democrats for their jaunt to Puerto Rico; on Saturday he tweeted: &#8220;Democrats should come back to Washington and work to end the Shutdown, while at the same time ending the horrible humanitarian crisis at our Southern Border. I am in the White House waiting for you!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Democrats should come back to Washington and work to end the Shutdown, while at the same time ending the horrible humanitarian crisis at our Southern Border. I am in the White House waiting for you!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1084094708144619525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
He also tweeted, &#8220;We have a massive Humanitarian Crisis at our Southern Border. We will be out for a long time unless the Democrats come back from their &#8216;vacations&#8217; and get back to work. I am in the White House ready to sign!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
We have a massive Humanitarian Crisis at our Southern Border. We will be out for a long time unless the Democrats come back from their &#8220;vacations&#8221; and get back to work. I am in the White House ready to sign!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1084121557193146368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
As <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-im-in-the-white-house-democrats-are-on-vacation">The Washington Examiner</a> reported, appearing on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;Justice with Judge Jeanine&#8221; on Saturday, Trump said, &#8220;I&#8217;d rather see the Democrats come back from their vacation and act. They&#8217;re not acting, and they&#8217;re the ones that are holding it up. It would take me 15 minutes to get a deal done, and everybody could go back to work. But I&#8217;d like to see them act responsibly, and they&#8217;re not acting responsibly, and that&#8217;s it. I&#8217;m in the White House, and most of them are in different locations. They&#8217;re watching a certain musical in a very nice location.&#8221;
Speaking of the Democrats who were visiting Puerto Rico, which was ravaged by hurricanes in 2017, Lin-Manuel Miranda&#8217;s father Luis, interviewed by <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-than-30-members-of-congress-will-visit-puerto-rico-during-hamiltons-opening-week/">CBS News</a>, stated, &#8220;They&#8217;ll get to experience firsthand the needs of the island, so that they go back and sort of fight (President) Trump and the Republicans.&#8221;
Some Democrats have slammed the Trump administration for its relief efforts after the hurricane. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), who joined other Democrats intending to create a commission to examine how the federal government dealt with the hurricanes, stated, &#8220;As we move into the 116th Congress, I will continue calling for accountability for how Donald Trump and his administration failed 3.4 million American citizens after Maria struck &#8230; It is clear now, from multiple analyses, that thousands &#8230; needlessly lost their lives because of the federal government&#8217;s feeble response to these hurricanes and their aftermath.&#8221;
CBS News reported that the Democrats&#8217; trip to Puerto Rico was &#8220;organized by Bold PAC, a political committee and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus&#8217; fundraising arm.&#8221;
&#8220;Hamilton&#8221; was scheduled to run for three weeks in Puerto Rico, with the funds raised from the show donated to the Flamboyan Arts Fund, which was created by the Miranda family. Luis Miranda estimated that the show would raise roughly $15 million for the fund, asserting, &#8220;Most of those dollars go to fund the arts through the Flamboyan Arts Fund. So we have around 2,000 tickets that we are selling for $5,000 and the bulk of that &#8212; 4,700 bucks &#8212; goes as a philanthropic gift &#8230; Nobody is making a penny here. All the investors, everyone has agreed that everything stays in the island &#8212; in the arts funds.&#8221;
The White House released a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trumps-administration-helped-lead-historic-recovery-effort-puerto-rico/">statement</a> in September 2018 addressing the relief efforts that were mounted in the wake of the hurricanes in Puerto Rico. The statement noted these details:
<blockquote>
$20 billion allocated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for disaster-related community development grants to Puerto Rico, the largest ever.
$1.4 billion in federal grants approved for more than 462,000 homeowners and renters.
$3.2 billion in FEMA Public Assistance funding obligated.
$33 million in claims paid by the National Flood Insurance Program.
$1.85 billion in low-interest disaster loans from the Small Business Administration.
$8 million in disaster unemployment assistance for more than 9,000 survivors.
$802 million approved for FEMA housing assistance.
Puerto Rico&#8217;s entire electrical grid failed following Hurricane Maria, but today power has been restored to 99.99 percent of customers able to receive an electrical connection.
Water systems were inoperable following Hurricane Maria, but today 99 percent of customers have had water restored.
Debris and 41,000 landslides shut down all but 400 miles of Puerto Rico&#8217;s 16,700 miles of roads, but today roads are clear and traffic is moving.
Maria knocked out 95 percent of cellular sites, but today 99.8 percent are operating.
</blockquote>

‘Hamilton’ Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda Rips Trump: ‘Lies As Easy As You And I Breathe Air’

Puerto Rico

Thirty Democrats spent the weekend sunning themselves on the beaches of Puerto Rico, enjoying the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC&#8217;s winter retreat in San Juan, while their colleagues back at home worked to negotiate an end to the ongoing government shutdown, and complained &#8212; loudly &#8212; that most federal workers have now missed a paycheck.
The timing could not have been worse for BOLD PAC&#8217;s annual roundtable weekend, where &#8220;key officials&#8221; met with members of the Puerto Rican government to discuss the ongoing Hurricane Maria relief efforts &#8212; but also to spend quality time soaking up rays on San Juan&#8217;s famous beaches, rubbing elbows with Puerto Rico&#8217;s VIPs, and attending a premiere performance of the musical &#8220;Hamilton,&#8221; starring the show&#8217;s A-list creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
And, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/30-dems-in-puerto-rico-with-109-lobbyists-for-weekend-despite-shutdown">the Washington Examiner reports</a>, Democrats spent quality time with lobbyists from some of the world&#8217;s biggest corporations.
&#8220;Some 109 lobbyists and corporate executives are named in the memo, a rate of 3.6 lobbyists for every member. They include those from several big K Street firms, R.J. Reynolds, Facebook, Comcast, Amazon, PhRMA, Microsoft, Intel, Verizon, and unions like the National Education Association,&#8221; according to the Examiner.
It does not appear that the vacation is all expenses paid (lawmakers covered their own &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; tickets, for example), but legislators reportedly received a free stay at a $429-per-night resort and most of their meals were covered.
Eagle-eyed tourists spotted a handful of Democrats enjoying the beautiful Puerto Rican weather. One Twitter user snapped a picture of Sen. Robert Menendez enjoying an impromptu meeting on the beach.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Spotted: Sen. Bob Menendez on the beach at a resort in Puerto Rico on Day 22 of the partial government shutdown. Reports say dozens of Dems are in PR for the CHC BOLD PAC winter retreat &#8212; including meetings on Maria cleanup, and a party with PR&#8217;s &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; cast. <a href="https://t.co/6FaBYKPo4L">pic.twitter.com/6FaBYKPo4L</a>
&#8212; David McAlpine (@DavidMcAlpine) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidMcAlpine/status/1084156883714392067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
BOLD PAC did not release a list of legislators attending their annual event, but the Washington Examiner obtained a partial list from the resort. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was on the list, but her Washington, D.C. office insists that she did not make the trip.
Democrats justified the trip by claiming that the retreat was planned well in advance of the shutdown, and that Democrats were working hard on reopening the government even as they relaxed in 80 degree weather.
&#8220;House Democrats voted to open the government multiple times; sadly, Senate Republicans and President Trump are continuing to put partisan politics ahead of our country, forcing the government to remain shut down,&#8221; Bold PAC Chair Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) said in a statement.
&#8220;As our Bold PAC members make their way to Puerto Rico for this important weekend &#8212; the largest contingency of House Democrats to visit Puerto Rico where they&#8217;ll be hearing from Commonwealth and local elected officials about the ongoing recovery efforts &#8212; we will be closely monitoring the situation in Washington. If there is any progress by Senate Republicans or the White House to reopen the federal government, then we will act accordingly,&#8221; he continued.

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