SCOOP: What VIPs at the Kennedy Center's latest gala told the Washington Reporter about DEI in the arts and in the government, how bad the Deep State is, and lessons they've learned from the arts
"The real America wants to come and see the Kennedy Center," Lexi Hamel told the Washington Reporter from the decadent red carpet. The numbers suggest she's right.
The Washington Reporter was on-scene as the Kennedy Center made fundraising history, pulling in $3.45 million at the annual Gala benefiting the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO).
VIPs galore descended on the nation’s premier arts facility, bringing with them an energy that was evident from the moment the evening kicked off. Stars flocked to the red carpet and to the concert itself, including Mr. Wonderful himself, Kevin O’Leary, along with Miss America Cassie Donegan, concert pianist Yuja Wang, Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo, Alexa Henning, Lexi Hamel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Cal Ripken, Jr., David Ginsberg, Secretary Chris Wright, Secretary Howard Lutnick, Sen. Deb Fischer (R., Neb.), Reps. Mike Turner (R., Ohio), Rick Larsen (D., Wash.), Julia Letlow (R., La.), and many more.
The red carpet was quickly taken over by some of the snazziest-dressed celebs in Washington, D.C., all of whom told the Reporter that they are eager to celebrate the arts.
O’Leary sported a bolo tie with a dead baby scorpion in it that he told the Reporter probably couldn’t be made any longer (“this scorpion wanted to be around my neck,” he insisted); Jean Davidson, the Executive Director of the NSO, said that it’s “business as usual” for the NSO and that “you do not need to know anything about classical music [to enjoy the show], just let the music speak to you”; the ODNI’s Alexa Henning compared how her office and the Kennedy Center have improved since they removed DEI programming; Lexi Hamel praised Grenell for the pro-American changes he’s made to the center; Matt and Mercedes Schlapp gave their friend Grenell credit for restoring the Kennedy Center to its deserved greatness, and for giving them an excuse to have a date night, and Kennedy Center Board Member Mary Helen Bowers spoke about the work the center’s board is doing.
O’Leary was wearing two watches during the red carpet, which he told the Reporter that he does “every day.” A watch expert looked into O’Leary’s wristwear and found that he was wearing almost half a million dollars on his wrists. “You don’t need any watches, you can use your phone,” but O’Leary loves supporting watchmakers. He buys watches when his children are born, when he does deals, and more. “You have two wrists, why don’t you have two watches on?” he asked.
Henning told the Reporter that she hadn’t yet been to the Kennedy Center since Trump and Grenell took it over; she had an interesting perspective as a top staffer for a current DNI visiting an arts center run by Grenell, a former DNI. “Director Gabbard draws a lot from previous DNIs and lots of folks, and Ric has definitely been an important voice for us and has given us some tips to defeat the Deep State,” she said.
“A lot of people don’t understand how deep rooted [the Deep State] is,” Henning explained. The Reporter was unable to independently verify Henning’s claim that she has been to over 100 red carpet events in her life. But, the Reporter has extensively covered the work that Gabbard is doing to purge the Deep State and DEI programming from the DNI’s office.
“We have been finding a lot of documents in a lot of different offices that were buried deep in the intelligence community, and something that everyone glosses over is that when intelligence officials spent so much time on DEI and focusing on that, it actually took away from them doing their day job, which is keeping the American people safe,” Henning said. “That’s what we’re getting back to, that’s a priority of the director’s, and it’s an every day task.”
Hamel, for her part, told the Reporter that she loves what Grenell has done. “We love him,” she said. “We love everything he’s done for the Kennedy Center, and everything that the president has done. “They’ve done such a good job with revamping the whole Kennedy Center, and that has brought in a lot of new people.” The Kennedy Center’s elimination of DEI programming under Grenell’s stewardship is “great,” Hamel said.
The Schlapps, who run the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), are longtime friends of Grenell’s. Matt told the Reporter that he’s “glad that the Kennedy Center has resolved those financial issues. It’s great that Congress passed a big bill of support” for the center. “It’s like a church to the arts…I’m glad they’re playing The Sound of Music and not The Sound of Protest.”
Mercedes added “it’s not just an American cultural institution, it’s an international cultural institution…and that really comes under the leadership of Ric Grenell….there are so many families exiting the Kennedy Center after watching The Sound of Music.”
She was a particular fan of Parade, a moving musical about the lynching of a Jewish man who was framed for a murder he didn’t commit. “It was one of those unexpected moments where it really hit hard, it hit home,” she said. “It talked about the injustices that so many Jewish people face. It brought tears to my eyes.”
Bowers told the Reporter that her background as a professional ballerina lets her come at her role as a board member with a focus on “great art, great performances, and really putting together programming that the audience wants to see…I’m so thrilled about President Trump and Ambassador Grenell’s leadership. They’re focused on the arts, but it’s a very welcoming environment.”j
Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, told the Reporter the secret to the successes the center is seeing: “we’re inviting new people into the building who have not felt welcomed before,” she said. “New donors, new supporters….Half the Gala’s donors were new, fundraising records were shattered, and patrons were inspired by the concert.”
Since Grenell took over the Kennedy Center earlier this year, he has stressed that he wants the arts center to be open to all. And Hamel said that he’s delivered on that promise in spades.
“What they recognize is that that’s the majority of the American people who support that,” she said. “When you have D.C. voting 95 percent Democrat, that’s not the real America. The real America wants to come and see the Kennedy Center.
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