I found this video on Yahoo of James Alefantis from May 2013 being interviewed for some online Jeep Cherokee travel doc-type thing.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/video/dc-art-james-alefantis-184257456.html?ref=gs
I'd download it, but I don't see any option to do so.
In it, he mentions several connections, including TransformerDC and other art groups and specifically says contemporary art is used to drive political narrative in this country. He talked about some video that was at the Smithsonian, then removed, then his grassroots group forced it to be put back on display. It's never explained what this video was about, but it would be worth investigating.
His comments on contemporary art, of course, are particularly disturbing when you consider the art he features at Comet Ping Pong, and that is featured in the homes of the Podestas. What political narrative are they driving here?
Finally, he does mention what a diverse customer base the restaurant has dining in their establishment, and he specifically mentions patrons as diverse as Sonia Sotomayor and Tucker Carlson.
I'll be the first to say I don't believe that everyone who goes to that restaurant is there for nefarious reasons, but the fact that this video is out there may be what is making someone like Tucker Carlson reluctant to address the issue, as well as other media figures. In all likelihood, many of them have dined there to check out the scene without actually having any connection to the perversities we've seen in the Instagrams, etc.
ETA: This document refers to the video that was pulled.
hideSPEAK newsletter
It's referenced as follows:
On October 29, 2010, Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, the first major museum
exhibition to explore themes of gender and sexuality in American art, opened at the National Portrait Gallery.
On December 1, artist David Wojnarowicz's 1987 video work A Fire in my Belly – which was intended to
articulate, among other things, the silencing of individuals suffering from AIDS – was pulled from the
exhibition by the director of the Smithsonian Institution. This decision was made after special interest groups and
members of Congress took offense to 11 seconds of the video, which contains a shot of ants crawling on a
crucifix.
veritas_e_lux ago
I found the video Alefantis mentioned here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHRCwQeKCuo