Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s America First Rally Moves to Third Location After Yet Another Venue Cancels Them
Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images
Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have been force to move their Southern California America First rally to a third venue, after the two previous locations canceled on them.
Now, the Saturday evening rally is scheduled at the Anaheim Event Center, but officials there aren’t too happy about the move either.
“It is not a decision by or supported by the city of Anaheim,” city spokesman Mike Lyster said early Saturday in a statement. “As a city we respect free speech but also have an obligation to call out speech that does not reflect our city and its values. We are looking into this matter this morning.”
Gaetz responded to the statement, tweeting, “Nothing like feeling welcome in Anaheim!”
The whole venue debacle began last week when the Pacific Hills Banquet & Event Center in Laguna Hills canceled on the pair last week “as soon as [they] found out who the speakers were” because they wanted to “stay clear of that.”
The controversial lawmakers then secured a new location at the Riverside Convention Center. However, Raincross Hospitality — the company operating the convention center — canceled on them as well on Friday.
“Riverside is a diverse and inclusive community, so it is heartening to hear that this event will not move forward,” Mayor Pro Tem Gaby Plascencia said in a statement. “I am disappointed we even got to this point, because these speakers are the antithesis of everything Riverside stands for.”
Multiple organizations had announced plans to protest outside the Riverside venue if the event went on as planned, the Orange County Register reported. And on Twitter, many users are distributing the Anaheim venue’s contact information and encouraging people to protest the rally as well.
Greene fired back following the second cancellation that “radical communists have spent the last week trying to cancel our America First rally” and that they “won’t back down.”
“Here’s the message for you, communist Democrats,” she said. “We’re going to stand up and we will have our America First rally tomorrow. You can’t cancel us, you can’t stop us, we’re gonna save America.”
In a later tweet, Greene said Democrats “think their vicious hate will stop me, but I never give up.”
“Democrats are the party of hate,” she wrote. “They organized to attack, threaten, & harass every venue we booked in CA to hold an America First rally, which celebrates our great country & freedoms. They think their vicious hate will stop me, but I never give up. See you at the rally tonight!”
Doors for the rally are slated to open at 6 p.m. tonight. The rally is part of a series Gaetz and Greene are doing across the country to promote conservative values.
Gaetz and Greene are two of the most controversial lawmakers and even some fellow Republicans have attempted to distance themselves amid a flurry of scandals.
Greene was stripped of her committee assignments in February, following her promotion of QAnon conspiracy theories and past incendiary comments. She has also come under bipartisan fire for recent antisemitic remarks comparing mask mandates and vaccine passports to Nazi-forced Jewish identification stars and calling Democrats “Nazis.”
Gaetz has been embroiled in a scandal of his own, as the Justice Department is currently investigating allegations of sex trafficking. Gaetz has been accused of having sexual relations with a 17-year-old and paying for her to travel with him. A former associate of his has pleaded guilty to several crimes including sex trafficking of a minor and has agreed to cooperate with the DOJ’s probe into Gaetz.
