Award-winning filmmaker, Dream Hampton, has backed out of speaking at a high-profile women’s conference in Washington, D.C over Kirstjen Nielsen’s appearance.
“Fortune should not be giving Kirstjen Nielsen a platform to rehabilitate her image,” a statement from Hampton to Huffington Post read in a piece published Friday about President Donald Trump’s former Department of Homeland Security secretary’s appearance at the Fortune “Most Powerful Women” summit this weekend. (RELATED: The Trump Administration Wants 450 Miles Of Border Wall By 2020)
“I’ve worked all my life to tell the stories of women, girls and families,” she added. “Sharing a stage with Nielsen, who separated immigrant families and put babies in cages, would have put a stamp of approval on her immoral and reprehensible actions and help legitimize the terror that Trump is inflicting on immigrants and communities of color.”
NEW – Filmmaker dream hampton has pulled out of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit bc Kirstjen Nielsen will also be speaking at the event https://t.co/T3GpeYfyLH
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) October 18, 2019
Hampton continued, “So I’m cancelling my attendance and encourage other speakers to do the same. I’m thankful for the organizing CREDO Action, Define American and Bend the Arc have done to hold Trump collaborators like Nielsen accountable for their atrocities.” (RELATED: Michael Moore: ‘F**k Hope, Seriously, F**k Hope,’ Trump Will Be ‘The Last President’)
The filmmaker, who was set to be part of a panel discussion on October 22 dealing with “justice and power,” went on to compare Nielsen‘s “reputation rinsing” to that of people “like R. Kelly and Jeffrey Epstein.”
“Reputation rinsing ― using visible, celebratory platforms to restore and normalize monstrous abuse ― was actually common practice for predators like R Kelly and Jeffrey Epstein,” the filmmaker explained.
“When every infant, toddler, child and teenager Nielsen is responsible for ripping from their families is released and reunited, when attempts at restitution are made, then perhaps she can face one of them for a public ‘interview,'” she added. “Perhaps they’ll begin by asking her a softball, like ‘Does she now know Norway is a white country?'”
A petition was also started, demanding that Nielsen be removed from the event.
More than 40,000 people sign petition demanding former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen be banned from Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women” summit https://t.co/rAPYWSBAjJ
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) October 16, 2019
As of Friday, she is still listed as a speaker, but the wording of her panel has been changed to read, “The Hard Questions,” per the report. The previous name for the panel was called a “Conversation.” with a focus on “supply chain risk management”as well as immigration policies that she was a part of.
Fortune explained that the panel focus changed after Edna Conway, Chief Security Officer, Global Value Chain, Cisco was unable to make it.
“We sought out an opportunity to bring the woman who was effectively responsible for that policy to ask her tough questions publicly and on stage about that policy,” Fortune spokeswoman Alison Klooster said, while defending Neilson’s involvement.