Dennis Michael Lynch is waiting for his Ben Carson moment — and he hopes he’ll get it this Friday in New Hampshire at the First In The Nation Republican Leadership Summit.
“Ben Carson gave that speech, that prayer breakfast speech,” the conservative documentarian who is weighing a quixotic campaign for president told me at the end of February at the margins of the Conservative Political Action Conference. “And I always refer to it, I always say, I haven’t had my prayer breakfast speech yet. He gave that speech and overnight it was ‘you need to run for president.’ And the media caught it.”
Lynch announced he was considering a run for president last fall during an appearance on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show, though it is only a small exaggeration to say that there might not be more than a handful of people in Washington, D.C. who are even aware of his existence, much less his campaign for the White House. But the entrepreneur-turned-filmmaker, who bears some resemblance to Fox News host Sean Hannity, argues he’s as qualified as any potential candidate.
“Ask how many of these guys actually lived 9-11 — who ran from the Twin Towers?” Lynch said when asked to defend his credentials compared to the other potential 2016 White House contenders. “I’m the only one. How many of their fathers’ are veterans? How many came from a single home? Just keep on pounding away. How many of these guys who cry about Common Core actually … have to do the Common Core curriculum with their kid? I do.”
“I’ve been on Fox,” the Long Island native went on, continuing to lay out why none of the other potential candidates “can hold a candle to” him. “Being on Fox doesn’t mean that you should be the president. It doesn’t mean that you should be in the line. But it certainly does mean that you’ve been vetted out to a certain degree and when I’m as consistent as I have been on those appearances, in my films, I think I’m exactly what America needs and I think a lot of Americans would also think that if I’m given a shot.”
But what Lynch really believes separates him from the Republican pack is his stance on illegal immigration, which he says “is the number one problem facing this country because it touches everything else.”
“I can secure that border like that,” he confidently stated, snapping his fingers. In addition to vigorously deporting those here illegally, he says “if we were to hold accountable the employers who employ the illegal aliens, fine them like they’re supposed to be fined, and if they repeat, prosecute them, they will stop hiring illegal aliens.”
No one else considering a run for the White House will take the tough stand on illegal immigration necessary to save America, Lynch says, other than maybe Donald Trump — and “he’s clueless” about what actually needs to be done.
Lynch sincerely believes that if only the media would give him some attention, he could overcome the gargantuan odds against him and become a real contender. He knows this, he said “with all humility,” because people regularly tell him that “I am their Ronald Reagan, that I am the GOP’s JFK.”
Lynch hoped to get his Ben Carson moment at CPAC, but he suspects he was kept off the speaking roster because “whoever’s pulling the strings” didn’t want the conservative activists in attendance to hear his immigration message.
“The powers that be don’t want me here,” he vented.
CPAC may not have panned out, but Friday morning at the Republican Leadership Summit in Nashua, Lynch believes he will finally get a chance to shine and make the media pay attention. He said he paid $10,000 for the opportunity to join a roster of speakers that includes over a dozen potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders and a slew of conservative commentators, like MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes.
Besides his stance on immigration, Lynch sees his speaking ability as something that sets him apart the crowded Republican field. Throughout our interview at CPAC, he implores me to go to YouTube to see some of his speeches, specifically one he gave to a tea party group in Phoenix, Arizona.
“You’ve got to watch it,” he said. “Just see the way the people react. When I walked off the stage, five guys from the stage crew there in Phoenix said to me, ‘we are Democrats. If you really do run, we’ll switch.'”
Though Lynch says he is committed to continuing on “until I really can come to terms that I’ve tried everything and I just can’t get it done,” he admits that the process has taken a toll on him, both physically and financially.
“I’ve spent more money on this than I’ve made this year,” he said, before conceding later in the interview: “This is hurting me.”
Toward the end of our February talk, Lynch told me that he fears if TheDC publishes his plan to break out at the New Hampshire summit, the powers that be will figure out a way to continue to silence him.
“I’m hesitating saying this to you because I’m afraid it will come back and shoot me in the foot to be quite honest, so I got a good relationship with The Daily Caller so I’m going to ask you to use your own discretion,” he said. “If April 17 and 18 is big for me, the next day I’m going to start go out and raising money. My fear is you print that and the people who never write about me, the people who won’t put me on television, realize the fact that that’s the way to make me go away.”
Since CPAC, a spokeswoman for Lynch said he has been “working on his plan to revive America.”
On Twitter, Lynch says he plans to make two major announcements on Friday. Asked whether Lynch will end his White House dreams if he fails to get the attention he has been seeking at the summit, his spokeswoman said, “Dennis is seeking one thing… a better America for his children and fellow Americans.”
Perhaps Lynch doesn’t want to contemplate what happens after Friday, when in his imagination he will finally get a shot to claim his destiny.
“I’m going to give the speech of my life,” he promised at CPAC. “It’s just going to come straight from my heart. I never write out my speeches. I just talk. And I’m going to hope that people like yourself will write articles about me like you do Ben Carson.”