Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado was spotted attending the early June Bilderberg gathering in Turin, Italy. When an enterprising U.S.-based reporter sought to interview the governor on camera, all he got for answers to his questions was “no comment” and “I came to learn.” A further question about what he did “learn” drew another “no comment” response.

The annual Bilderberg meetings began in 1954. Chaired initially by David Rockefeller and Netherland’s Prince Bernhard, their invitation-only list of invitees included the names of approximately 100 European and North American political movers and shakers. The Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeck, Holland, hosted the initial 1954 meeting, and subsequent annual gatherings have been held in plush resorts in Europe and the Americas. Never again meeting at the Bilderberg Hotel, the annual weighty confab has nevertheless retained the Bilderberg name.

A Bilderberg invitation attracts some the world’s most powerful political leaders and corporate titans. If they aren’t already committed globalists, they will find that attitude prevalent at the clandestine gathering. All attendees are sworn to reveal nothing about what transpires during the several days they rub each other’s elbows. One rather obvious reason for the gathering is its usefulness as an introduction for ambitious newcomers who crave national and international recognition. Each, of course, is expected to display his or her willingness to advance plans to create a New World Order and its choice of world government over national independence.

Former virtual nobodies such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama went to Bilderberg, won acceptance, and soon became U.S. Presidents. In England, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair rose from obscurity to leadership of their country after a visit to a Bilderberg session. Numerous other European dark horses, even some from Canada, got their start or a significant boost through attendance at one of these conferences.

Not too many years ago, John Hickenlooper emerged out of a Republican family as a committed Democrat. During his political career, he has promoted Democrat programs — loose immigration, large bureaucratic governing, gun control, etc. — first as mayor of Denver and then as Colorado governor. Already being mentioned as a possible Trump opponent in 2020, he is precisely the type individual Bilderberg elitists are eager to scrutinize. Years ago, a politician named Bourke Hickenlooper, a Republican senator from Iowa and an older relative of the Colorado governor, got himself an invite to Bilderberg.

Another curious credential possessed by the Colorado governor is his wife Robin’s membership in the globalist-minded Council of Foreign Relations. Her connection to this U.S.-based promoter of world government has surely been helpful in gaining support for her husband’s ambitions.

In 2016, almost immediately after Donald Trump won the GOP nomination, Democrat Governor Hickenlooper was sought out by Republican Governor John Kasich of Ohio to form a “unity slate” that would oppose the GOP’s choice of Trump and Pence. The potential Kasich-Hickenlooper candidacy never got very far, but its mere possibility said plenty about the two men who were considering it.

Elected leaders should never attend secret meetings ladened with foreign politicos. Bilderberg has always operated under what are called “Chatham House rules,” which require that all participants remain silent about what they hear and what they contribute during the proceedings. It’s hardly a surprise that Chatham House happens to the name of the headquarters of the Royal Institute for International Affairs, the British counterpart of the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations.

John Hickenlooper should expect his trip to Turin, Italy, to be a concern of many should he seek higher office.

John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.