Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene engages in a shouting match with another member of Congress in September 2021. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call)
Jan. 28, 2022 by David Silverberg
A roster of far right speakers including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-14-Ga.), the high-profile, controversial, extremist member of Congress, is scheduled to come to Naples, Fla., on Saturday, March 19, 2022 for a rally being billed as Patriot Fest.
The rally location is being advertised for Sugden Regional Park in Naples from noon to 5:00 pm.
Other speakers include Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-11-NC), Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican candidate in the 13th Congressional District (Tampa), Alex Bruesewitz, a conservative political strategist, Brendon Leslie, an independent conservative journalist, Rogan O’Handley, a conservative commentator who goes by the stage name “DC Draino,” and Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III, the local farmer and grocer.
The event’s sponsor is listed as Florida’s Conservative Voice, a website operated by Leslie.
This is the second Patriot Fest being held in Southwest Florida. The first was held on Sept. 18, 2021 at Oakes’ home in North Naples, the same day as a Washington, DC protest against the jailing of Capitol insurrectionists.
General admission for the event is $25, with higher classes at $150 and $250.
Greene (also known by her initials, MTG) has propagated numerous baseless conspiracy theories like QAnon and Pizzagate, called for the assassination of fellow members of Congress, including House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.), and denied the reality of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the Sandy Hook and Las Vegas shootings, saying they were fake and staged by anti-gun activists. She has also made anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic accusations including that lasers in outer space run by the Rothschild family created California wildfires. She has consistently supported former President Donald Trump’s false contention that he won the election.
In February 2021, Greene’s general behavior and calls for violence against fellow members of Congress and failure to “reflect creditably on the House,” resulted in her being stripped of her committee assignments by a majority vote of the entire chamber. Southwest Florida Reps. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) and Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) voted against the resolution, while Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) voted for it.
“I’ve previously stated that MTG’s comments are unacceptable, & today I voted to remove her from her committee assignments,” Diaz-Balart tweeted at the time.
Cawthorn, the youngest member of Congress at 26, has been termed an “embarrassment to the institution, to his party, and to his state” by the Charlotte Observer newspaper in no small part due to his emphatic support of Trump’s baseless election claims. John Hood, a North Carolina board member of the conservative John Locke Foundation, called him “a callow and appallingly ignorant young man who regularly embarrasses conservatives and Republicans, whether they admit it or not.”
Luna, a Republican, ran unsuccessfully in the 2020 general election against Rep. Charlie Crist (D-13-Fla.), who this year is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.
Liberty lives in light
© 2022 by David Silverberg