Pasadena’s Politicon Comes to a Close With Record-Breaking Attendance; A Few Disruptions But Mostly Peaceful Dialogue
Politicon 2017 came to a close Sunday at the Pasadena Convention Center with a record-breaking attendance of more than 10,000 over the weekend event. Day two of the event included debates, panels and discussions that included participants America Ferrera, Roger Stone, Tomi Lahren, Symone Sanders, Ben Shapiro, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Lesley Stahl, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Ted Lieu and Cenk Uygur.
Politicon is the annual, bi-partisan “unconventional political convention” that brings republicans, democrats, and people of all political stripes, together for a weekend of intelligent, controversial, entertaining and humorous discussion that provides a unique platform for opposing ideologies to meet in the middle.
Highlights from day two of Politicon included:
- “Meet Veep!,” a panel consisting of HBO’s “Veep” cast members Clea Duvall and Tim Simmons and executive producers David Mandel and Frank Rich, who talked about the show in the Trump White House era, saying it’s actually made their jobs tougher because, as Mandel said, it’s “rival comedy.”
- Conservative pundit Tomi Lahren faced off against democratic strategist Symone Sanders where the two debated over if Anthony Scaramucci should stay in the White House, if CNN is fake news and what is wrong with the Democratic Party.
- Actress America Ferrera participated in the “Black Lives Matter: Rights & Resistance” panel where she talked about the rise in violent attacks that have a racial bias. Black Lives Matter Organizer Dr. Melina Abdullah stirred controversy with her statement that “red caps have essentially replaced white sheets.”
- Roger Stone hosted “Roger Stone Holds Court” in which he said sources told him Justice Kennedy’s resignation is “imminent,” called Rep. Maxine Waters “one of the most inherently corrupt members of Congress” and spoke how he’d do anything “short of breaking the law.”
- Cenk Uygur went head to head in an evening debate against Ben Shapiro, which was so popular organizers had to move it to a bigger room to accommodate the very vocal, interactive and politically divided crowd of almost 3,000 that lined up hours before the start.
Video clips of Saturday’s Chelsea Handler and Tomi Lahren discussion can be found here.