U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene visits CT
On a stage in front of more than 3,000 people waving Donald Trump and United States flags in Plainfield, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said it reminded her of home.
Greene, a Republican representative for Georgia, visited Plainfield on Saturday afternoon for the Quinebaug Citizens Alliance’s “America First Rally.”
“Who is your president?” Greene asked the crowd, which prompted a loud chant for former President Donald Trump.
“Trump is my president,” Greene said. The Georgia representative also expressed her disdain for mask and vaccine mandates.
Throughout her speech, she told attendees how she disapproved of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill, which he was promoting in Connecticut just last week. She also floated the idea of trying to impeach the president.
Greene was sure to include quips about her Democrat counterparts in Congress, which were met with ample applause.
However, Greene kept coming back to her central message for attendees, which can be applied to any Connecticut resident regardless of political affiliation: Get involved in your local government and promote change.
Greene and other speakers at the event were accompanied by the sound of a single drum, decorated with “Unmask our kids.”
Throughout Greene’s speech, Nicholas Blanchard yelled out various chants, such as “Back the Blue” and “We love you.” Clad in a United States flag suit and a gigantic red cowboy hat, Blanchard, drove more than four hours from Waterville, Maine to get to the event. He was not disappointed.
“It was great to see so many fellow Americans,” the Patriots with Attitude founder said.
Ben Hull, a commissioner on Lisbon’s Planning and Zoning Commission, has been a member of the Quinebaug Citizens Alliance for about a year now. For the past three months, the group has been organizing the event to bring together like-minded people and raise awareness, Hull said.
“It brings the message of conservatism,” he said.
Meanwhile, about a dozen protesters waved signs along Norwich Road outside of the event.
Cassandra Martineau, a trans woman and a candidate for the Willimantic Taxing District’s Board of Directors, said she saw rampant sexism, racism, homophobia and transphobia at the event, and she wanted to make a stand.
When asked if she believed the event attendees and her could work together, she replied, “I can’t come together with someone who wants me dead.”
“Bullies don’t just go away,” she added, and said her group throughout the day was met with a lot of anger.
Another protester, James Flores, combatted that anger by screaming “I love you” in a bullhorn.
Hull said he didn’t mind the protesters. In fact, he wanted the event to promote free speech.