American Conservation Coalition founder and president Benji Backer said Tuesday his engagement to speak at a climate change reform event was cancelled after he tweeted linking the novel coronavirus to China.
I’ve been on the frontlines speaking out against racism for the past few weeks, months, and years. To be canceled for being “racist” because I linked COVID to China really sucks…and exposes why so many people are frustrated with the division in our country right now.
— Benji Backer (@BenjiBacker) June 17, 2020
The American Conservation Coalition is a nonprofit organization that promotes free-market and limited-government solutions to environmental issues. The group was created in 2017 with the goal of bringing conservative voices into the environmentalism movement, which has typically “disenfranchised those who are right-of-center,” according to the organization’s website.
The tweet in question, which Backer posted May 17, states that coronavirus revealed how interconnected the world is, highlighting the world’s dependence on China in particular. “It’s also made us realize that we are far too dependent on—and gracious to—China,” he said in the tweet.
COVID has taught us that the world is far more interconnected that we originally thought…we can’t always put ourselves first at the expense of others.
It’s also made us realize that we are far too dependent on—and gracious to—China.
— Benji Backer (@BenjiBacker) May 17, 2020
Backer also indicated that a retweet which indirectly criticized a Black Lives Matter protest contributed to his cancellation as an event speaker. (RELATED: News Anchors Blame Coronavirus Spikes On Reopening While Ignoring Recent Protests)
They also included that THIS contributed to it, too. pic.twitter.com/ZqGoWCiYPf
— Benji Backer (@BenjiBacker) June 17, 2020
The novel coronavirus reportedly originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, and some experts reported that the virus may have been leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Nearly 435,000 people have died since the outbreak began, including more than 100,000 Americans.
A report released Monday by Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee concluded that the pandemic “could have been prevented” if China had not covered up the outbreak in its early stages. China has also come under fire for collaborating with the World Health Organization in order to delay reports about the outbreak.
The Daily Caller has reached out to Backer for comment and will update the article if he responds.