‘We’re Supposed to Be the Party of the Working Class?’ Republicans Complain About ‘Ridiculous’ Prices at Posh RNC Venue
Photo via Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort & Club on Facebook.
RNC members are gathering in Dana Point, California this week to decide whether or not to re-elect Chair Ronna McDaniel, and the only thing higher than the tensions are the prices at the posh resort hosting the GOP get-together.
A report by S.V. Dáte at the Huffington Post spells out exactly how painful those prices are at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort & Club.
“Room rates over a thousand a night,” Dáte tweeted about his article. “Parking is $75. Breakfast will cost $50 or $60. And you’ll drop $100 at dinner without breaking a sweat.”
That room rate starts at $1,283 for Wednesday night, plus a $55 “resort fee,” according to the Waldorf Astoria’s website, which brags that it is “the perfect blend of Southern California’s legendary laid-back luxury and the iconic culture of True Waldorf Service,” an “elegant AAA Five-Diamond retreat” that is “[p]erched on 175 acres atop a 150-foot seaside bluff and featuring a private beach club.” Thursday will be a little easier on the wallet with rooms starting at $881 (plus that resort fee again).
The vote for the various RNC offices will occur on Friday, with McDaniels facing challenges from attorney Harmeet Dhillon and MyPillow magnate and conspiracy peddler Mike Lindell.
John Fredericks, a conservative talk radio host who makes frequent appearances on Steve Bannon’s podcast and is a critic of McDaniels’ tenure leading the national party, complained to Dáte that it “costs $75 just to park a car!” at the resort, and breakfast for two had been $60.
“And we’re supposed to be the party of the working class?” said Fredericks. He accused the party of picking the kind of resort that boasts its own Cartier boutique as an intentional effort to make it hard for the grassroots activists to attend.
There was a negotiated block room rate of $250 per night, but that was only for the official RNC staff, the 168 voting members, and invited guests, and that “still leaves hefty fees for food and incidentals,” Dáte noted.
The majority of the RNC members pay their own expenses to attend these events, and one member who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the meal prices were “ridiculous.”
“I’m looking for every free meal I can get,” the member added, reminiscent of a college student attending a club meeting for the gratis pizza.
The pricey venue also makes it tougher for reporters, Dáte wrote:
Choosing expensive hotels also has the effect of dissuading some media outlets from being there to cover meetings.
In the past, RNC-hired security staff has worked to limit the access of journalists. In 2021, at the winter meeting on Amelia Island, Florida, the party’s contracted security restricted reporter movements within public areas of the Ritz Carlton. A year later in Salt Lake City, RNC security actually demanded reporters show their room keys at the Great America Hotel or be thrown off the property.
