Anatomy of a dogged bid for rally venue by Gaetz, Greene
Behind the scenes, forces worked to block the pair
In the end, the on-again, offagain, on-again, off-again, onagain, off-again and, finally, onagain Southern California rally by Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene didn’t amount to much.
A few more than 100 people heard the pair speak outside River- side City Hall that July 17 afternoon. It was a far cry from what was to be the next in a series of America First rallies the Republican pair held across the U.S. But security concerns and a desire to avoid political controversy led venues in Orange County and Riverside County to repeatedly cancel the rally over the course of nine days. The final location was announced less than three hours before the protest began.
Gaetz of Florida and Greene of Georgia are known for their ardent support of former President Donald Trump, rejection of COVID-19 safety measures and false claims that Trump won the 2020 presidential election.
What follows is a timeline of how those nine days played out, as told in more than 500 emails, text messages and social media posts released by the city of Riv
erside to the Southern California News Group in response to a California Public Records Act request. The records reveal behind-thescenes comments from city leaders, discussions about security and at least one city council member’s concerns for his own safety.
July 8: Gaetz and Greene announce plans for a July 17 rally at the Pacific Hills Banquet & Event Center in Laguna Hills.
Tickets were free. But registrants got an email asking if they wanted to upgrade to VIP status for $250 per person, which included “preferred seating” and the chance for a photo with Gaetz and Greene.
July 9: The center cancels the event. General Manager Javad Mirtavoosi says center officials had not been told the rally would feature Gaetz and Greene.
July 13: Gaetz and Greene insist there would still be a rally in Orange County.
July 15: Gaetz and Greene announce they will move the event to an unnamed Riverside County location. Media confirms organizers had booked the Riverside Convention Center.
On Reddit, a poster writes that city spokesperson “Phil Pitchford is the one that allowed (the) event to come to (the) Riverside Convention Center.”
Pitchford later said he got dozens of calls and had no idea how many got his number from Reddit.
That afternoon, Riverside Police Department Chief Larry Gonzalez emails the Riverside City Council.
“The convention center has announced that they will cap internal attendance to 1,000 attendees,” he writes. “Other similar events in Arizona, Georgia and Florida experienced on average approximately 20 counterprotesters. There are no known threats as of this time but the announcement of the event coming locally to Riverside just hit local media.”
Pitchford issues a statement that evening, saying the booking by Raincross Hospitality, the company with a contract to manage the city-owned convention center through 2028, “is not an endorsement by the City of Riverside of the views that may be expressed at that event.”
Internally, officials debate doing more: “If one public cent goes (to) the convention center, then how can we say no, you can’t hold your rally here?” Council member Gaby Plascencia wrote in a text message to City Manager Al Zelinka.
Gonzalez tells Zelinka that event organizers agreed to pay for six officers and a sergeant, for a total cost of $4,474.80.
“Unfortunately, we never really know what kind of opposition we are going to encounter,” Gonzalez emailed to Zelinka. “Our responsibility at RPD is to ensure that all participants inside and out are safe.”
July 16: Riverside residents let the City Council and city staff have it via email. The League of Women Voters, Greater Riverside Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the League of United Latin American Citizens and Unidos express concerns about the planned rally.
“I have never been more embarrassed to be from Riverside. How can you allow Gaetz and Green to bring their hate rally to Riverside?” Riverside resident Wayne Hundley writes in an email to City Council members. “Is Trump next? Better get the money up front.”
“I cannot sit by and watch Riverside clean up Orange County’s mess again by agreeing to host those two horrible ‘members’ of Congress,” Riverside resident Ellie Cannell writes to the council. “If those repellent politicians are too controversial for an ultra conservative county like Orange, why on Earth is Riverside stepping up to the task?”
“If this was at a private facility as was scheduled in Orange County, it was be heinous but tolerable under free speech,” Riverside resident Peggy Maneri writes to city staff and the council,
Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, who reject COVID-19 safety mandates and falsely claim Donald Trump won the 2021 presidential election, appear outside Riverside City Hall on July 17, after repeated failed attempts to stage events at indoor venues in the Southland.
Tensions rise as a supporter for Greene and Gaetz, foreground, and counterprotesters merge loudly but not violently at Riverside City Hall in July. A few more than 100backers appeared at the rally for the Republican representatives.
“but not at a facility owned by our city’s citizens!”
They also hear from rally supporters. They are fewer in number than those opposed to the rally, and mostly not local.
“If you on the left really want to be ‘inclusive,’ then you would have people on both sides of the aisle speaking in your community,” Coachella Valley resident David Teufel emails Plascencia. “I do not live in Riverside and if I did, none of you would get my vote. I find you despicable in the way you present yourself as some high all mighty gift to the world around you.”
At 11:12 a.m., Zelinka asks Gonzalez to look into threats against council members. Council Member Ronaldo Fierro had expressed concerns for his safety, Zelinka writes. Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson was “getting a lot of protest” as well.
City Council members discuss holding an emergency meeting.
“Unfortunately Councilwoman (Clarissa) Cervantes and I were the only ones willing to sign to have a meeting. The mayor and my colleagues refused to have a meeting. I share your concerns and wish my colleagues would do more,” Plascencia writes in emails to members of the public. “I will continue to do what I can between now and then especially when it comes to the contract with Raincross Hospitality.”
Plascencia has butted heads with fellow council members before. She was censured by the council in June after they found she had used her position for personal gain and discriminated against a former election opponent.
At 7:56 p.m., Zelinka sends a text message to council members. He’d just gotten off the phone with Raincross Corporate Group founder and former Republican Assemblyman Ted Weggeland
Anti-Biden sentiment ran high for some supporters of Greene and Gaetz at the July rally in Riverside.
and Raincross Corporate Group Senior Vice President Lou Monville. They let him know the America First event would “not be occurring.”
“This is best,” Lock Dawson replies.
According to a text message conversation between Zelinka and Carl Carey, Riverside’s head of general services, on July 14, the city contacted convention center General Manager Scott Megna. Carey asked for a copy of the center’s booking policy. According to Carey, Megna said Gaetz and Greene were booked because other politicians who had spoken at the convention center, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dianne Feinstein, caused no issues.
“We, the city, can request to cancel the event,” Carey writes in a text message to Zelinka, “however the (convention center) folks will inform all the city canceled, and not the (convention center) as the issue has become quite contentious.”
Zelinka writes that the city canceling the rally would infringe on Gaetz’s and Greene’s freedom of speech.
“It sounds as there is no actual source of authority to cancel” the event, Zelinka writes to Carey.
Later that day, the event is canceled again. The city characterizes it as Raincross’ decision.
In an email to The Press-Enterprise, Megna says the facility was contacted July 9 about “holding a political speech/ event” July 17. According to Megna, the convention center didn’t know until July 12 that Gaetz and Greene would be speaking.
After 10 p.m., Gaetz and Greene announce they would move their event back to Orange County, at the M3 Live Anaheim Event Center.
July 17, 6:55 a.m.: Gaetz continues on Facebook to promote the rally.
July 17, 7:10 a.m.: Gaetz posts on Twitter that he and Greene will sue the Riverside Convention Center over the cancellation. He writes they will host an event at an “alternate location” that night. As of Friday, Sept. 10, no lawsuit has been filed in Riverside County Superior Court. A Desert Hot Springs woman filed an ethics complaint against city officials, alleging they violated conservatives’ civil rights.
July 17, 9:35 a.m.: Anaheim officials announce the rally at the convention center is canceled.
July 17, 2:12 p.m.: Gaetz and Greene send a media advisory email: an “America First Peaceful Protest” will occur at Riverside City Hall at 5 p.m.
“Cancel culture is real,” Greene writes in the email. “Millions of Americans have experienced it in the workplace and on social media, and I’ve experienced it first hand not only in Congress but here in California, where the left uses tactics similar to those employed by tyrannical governments throughout history who want to totally silence their political opponents.”
July 17, 2:59 p.m.: Gaetz posts a video to social media, saying Riverside City Hall will be the site of a “Peaceful Protest Against Communism” at 5 p.m.
“These folks, they can cancel our venues, but they can never cancel our patriotism or our American spirit,” Gaetz says in the video.
According to Pitchford, permits are not required for rallies in public places unless the rally blocks the public’s right of way.
Zelinka asks Carey to coordinate with Riverside police.
“Please make sure that all of city hall is protected, including the council chambers,” Zelinka texts. “To the degree that we can keep the perimeter of city hall safe, that is key. Also, the downstairs access points to the IT room and the city hall parking garage.”
The city prepares to close streets as needed. The library, Riverside Art Museum and the future site of the Cheech Marin art museum are singled out for extra security.
“I will leave all of this in the hands of our exceptionally capable Riverside Police Department to direct and guide the event,” Zelinka writes.
July 17: 5 p.m.: After nine days of buildup, Gaetz and Greene speak
about 10 minutes. Gonzalez estimates the crowd at about 120 people, including just under two dozen counterprotesters. Gaetz compares the difficulty of holding a rally in Southern California to life in communist Cuba.
Gonzalez had told Zelinka to stay away from city hall. So Pitchford sends the city manager photos of the protest taken from higher floors of city hall via text message.
After all the back and forth, what did Gaetz and Greene accomplish with their attempted America First rally in Southern California?
It didn’t seem to be a successful fundraiser, even with the $250 VIP experience promoted as part of the rally.
“Given the actual receipts? No,” it wasn’t, said Ivy Cargile, an associate professor of political science at Cal State Bakersfield. “They didn’t even end up having a big event. So, no, I would not call this a success.”
Maybe that wasn’t the point.
“If you can get money out of it, great, but I think it’s just to rally the base and maybe a bit of bravado to show ‘even in liberal California, look, we have a group of followers,’” Cargile said.
Gaetz and Greene may have been focusing on a single Florida Republican.
“It’s also about making sure the base is fed and that Donald Trump sees what they’re doing,” Cargile said. “Even in the last rally they had in Des Moines, a lot of their talk was about how Biden is not their president and anyone who’s not saying that Donald Trump was reelected has no place in the party.”
July 19: The city’s post about the rally on the Nextdoor social media app leads to so many heated comments by users that Nextdoor close comments on the post. That’s happened only three times in the eight years Pitchford has worked for the city, he tells Plascencia in an email.
Gonzalez writes Assistant City Manager Lea Deesing to say he was adding additional security for the upcoming City Council meeting and at the city’s Black Lives Matter murals downtown, where the pro-rally group was also expected to protest. The murals were defaced in November 2020 and a ceremony was set for July 21 to unveil a new mural.
July 20: At the evening council meeting, Riverside residents praise and berate the council for its handling of the rally.
Aug 19: The website for the Gaetz and Greene tour, AmericaFirstRallyTour. com, goes offline some time after an Aug. 19 rally in Des Moines.