July 17, 2021

Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene Can’t Find Anyone Willing to Host Their California Rally

Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene address a rally on May 7 in The Villages, Florida. Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP

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Two of the most controversial Republican members of Congress, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, were planning to hold a California rally this evening. The trouble is that venues keep canceling on them. 

On Saturday, after two other venues had backed out, the M3 Live Anaheim Event Center also scrapped its plans to host the pair, hours before the “America First” rally was scheduled to start.

The Pacific Hills Banquet & Event Center in Laguna Hills and the Riverside Convention Center had already canceled the event after receiving a deluge of complaints. 

Gaetz is currently under investigation for allegedly having sex with a minor and paying prostitutes. Greene was stripped of her committee assignments earlier this year following her promotion of conspiracy theories and apparently of violence against political opponents.

Gaetz and Greene have been hosting “America First” rallies around the country for the past two months. Gaetz told Politico that the rallies would target the “radical left” and focus on “ending America’s forever-wars, fixing the border Joe Biden broke on day one, prioritizing Americans, not illegal migrants, reshoring industries sold to foreign adversaries, ensuring real election integrity, and taking on the threat of the Chinese Communist Party.” 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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