This MAGA extremist has been fired by Biden — but he’s a rising star in Trumpworld
Almost a year into his presidency, Joe Biden has fired Darren Beattie — a Donald Trump appointee and far-right conspiracy theorist — from his position at the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. Beattie was drawing more and more criticism for promoting nonsense conspiracy theories about the January 6, 2021 insurrection. But journalist Laura K. Field, in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on January 18, laments that Beattie’s extremism is only increasing his popularity in MAGA World.
“The story of how Beattie went from being an unknown speechwriter fired from the Trump White House in 2018 to a prominent propagandist fired by the Biden White House in 2022 is worth recounting for what it tells us about the chaotic Trumpian right,” Field explains. “It is not a particularly encouraging story. Beattie rehabilitated his relationship with MAGA World not by cleaning up his act, but by showing an unflagging commitment to Trump and demonstrating a real knack for promoting conspiracy theories. That Trump is eager to promote Beattie — that Trump finds Beattie useful — is yet another indicator of everything that is disturbing about the ex-president’s hold on the GOP.”
NEW!\n\nPresident Donald J. Trump:\n\n"Congratulations to Darren Beattie and Revolver News who have exposed so much of the Fake News' false narrative about January 6th. Because of Darren's work, and others, Americans aren't buying into the Unselect Committee's attempts...pic.twitter.com/kiKyrHz0J1— Liz Harrington (@Liz Harrington) 1641747771
Beattie was fired in 2018 because of his revelation that he had, in 2016, appeared on a panel with Peter Brimelow, founder of the far-right anti-immigrant group VDare. But the Trump White House rehired Beattie in November 2020, and he was given a three-year appointment to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
On the one-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Beattie — founder of the far-right website Revolver News — promoted the conspiracy theory that FBI agents were behind the attack. And a year earlier, on the day of the insurrection, Beattie posted some overtly racist tweets. Beattie wrote that Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina “needs to learn his place and take a knee to MAGA,” and he said the same thing about the Heritage Foundation’s Kay Cole James and journalist Ibram X. Kendi — all of whom are African-American.
Field notes, “Beattie’s website helped spread lies about Hunter Biden; it also played a role in seeding the Stop the Steal conspiracy. And Beattie exposed a vulgar and vicious racist side of himself on January 6. Until not so long ago, such actions would have been disqualifying for engagement in mainstream politics. Not so nowadays.”
When the Biden White House, on January 14, asked Beattie to resign from the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, he bragged about it on Twitter:
Better than a Pulitzer\u2026pic.twitter.com/Rp1agfJkP8— Darren J. Beattie \ud83c\udf10 (@Darren J. Beattie \ud83c\udf10) 1642188729
The fact that Beattie is such an embarrassment, Field laments, has only increased his popularity among MAGA Republicans.
“Ever since the mob attack on the Capitol,” Field writes, “Beattie has proven a prolific inventor and propagator of conspiracy theories about the FBI’s involvement in January 6. This, more than anything else he has done so far on Revolver, is what has brought him to the forefront of the MAGA mind…. After he was finally fired from the Commission on Friday, Beattie preened. Presumably in so doing, he moved himself still one step closer to the inner sanctums of Mar-a-Lago.”
