Kennedy Center says J6 Prison Choir is not a 'confirmed event,' despite what Steve Bannon says

Longtime Trump state Steve Bannon told a cheering CPAC crowd successful Washington, D.C., this week that the J6 Prison Choir — composed of men jailed aft the riot astatine the Capitol connected Jan. 6, 2021 — would execute astatine the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

“I talked to Ambassador Ric Grenell past night,” Bannon said astatine the Conservative Political Action Conference, referring to the erstwhile ambassador to Germany whom President Trump appointed arsenic the center’s interim enforcement director. “And I deliberation the J6 choir is gonna play the Kennedy Center for a nighttime and grant their families.”

A typical for the Kennedy Center, however, told The Times connected Friday: “We bash not person immoderate accusation connected this arsenic a Kennedy Center confirmed event.”

Speculation has swirled astir the aboriginal of Kennedy Center programming present that Trump has wrested control of the nationalist arts instauration and dismissed committee members appointed nether erstwhile President Biden, arsenic good arsenic longtime committee Chair David M. Rubenstein and longtime President Deborah F. Rutter.

High-profile artists associated with the halfway oregon scheduled to execute determination person stepped down oregon canceled appearances, including TV shaper Shonda Rhimes, instrumentalist Ben Folds, opera vocalist Renée Fleming and histrion Issa Rae.

Online chatter astir a J6 Prison Choir quality astatine the halfway picked up steam aft aboriginal media reports took Bannon’s remarks seriously. The choir is champion known for a signaling that features the men singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” interspersed with clips of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The opus concisely took the No. 1 spot connected Billboard’s integer opus income illustration aft it was released successful March 2023.

A euphony video for the opus — featuring clips of the Capitol riot arsenic good arsenic images of Trump hugging the American flag, pledging allegiance to the emblem and holding rallies — premiered connected the “Bannon’s War Room” podcast.

At CPAC, Bannon said the J6 choir should unfastened the caller incarnation of the Kennedy Center nether Grenell and Trump.

“And we invitation each the families they tried to destroy, the J6ers, and they get to beryllium successful boxes wherever the elites sit,” Bannon said. “And we instrumentality the elites — for conscionable 1 nighttime — and we instrumentality them down to the D.C. gulag.”