Steve Bannon to speak at Brian Terry benefit dinner in Tucson
Nov 3, 2017, 1:22 PM | Updated: 1:43 pm
In this Oct. 9, 2017, photo, former White House strategist Steve Bannon speaks during a television interview in New York. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
PHOENIX — Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist to President Donald Trump, will be the keynote speaker at a benefit dinner in Tucson later this month.
Bannon, the executive chairman of the far-right news outlet Breitbart News, will speak at the Brian Terry Foundation Courage Awards & Benefit Dinner in Tucson on Nov. 18, according to a recent press release.
Bannon will also receive a journalism and reporting award named after Terry for “Breitbart’s tireless reporting on efforts to hold the Obama administration accountable for the failed gun running operation known as Fast and Furious.”
This will be Bannon’s second time visiting Arizona in a matter of weeks. He had attended a fundraising event for Senate hopeful Dr. Kelli Ward on Oct. 17.
The foundation was established after Terry was killed in 2010. His death exposed a bungled federal gun operation called Fast and Furious.
Terry was shot after several members of a crew who planned on robbing marijuana smugglers encountered his four-man team of an elite Border Patrol unit.
The unit was staking out the southern Arizona desert on a mission to find “rip-off” crew members who rob drug smugglers.
The members encountered a five-man group of suspected marijuana bandits and identified themselves as police in trying to arrest them.
The bandits refused to stop, prompting an agent to fire non-lethal bean bags toward them. They then responded by firing from AK-47-type assault rifles.
Terry was struck in the back and died shortly after.
His death exposed the Fast and Furious operation, in which agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed criminals to buy guns with the intention of tracking the weapons.
But the agency lost most of the guns, including two that were found at scene of Terry’s death. The operation set off a political firestorm and led Terry’s family to file a lawsuit.
Five men involved in the killing have been convicted or have pleaded guilty in federal court to murder charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
