While most news reports about Friday's Liberate Minnesota rally at the governor's residence presume "Republican" organizations were involved in hosting the event, Bluestem noticed in Footnote: Liberate Minnesota leader Michele Even part of GOP's MN Scammers Exposed that some of the hosts were in a public fight with the Republican Party of Minnesota and the two major Republican state legislative caucuses.
And as Unicorn Riot footage of the rally and the Facebook banner of one of the hosts (top of post) of Friday's rally illustrate, an organizer of the rally and some participants just love themselves some Three Percenter iconology. There are also the Proud Boys Nico interviewed.
When we posted Footnote: Liberate Minnesota leader Michele Even part of GOP's MN Scammers Exposed just before 11 a.m., none of the three party entities had shared information about the rally on social media.
Given the line-up, we can't blame them.
Later in the day--after the event began, the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus Facebook page shared this video and remarks on its Facebook page:
Action 4 Liberty, a splinter conservation group that grew out of the Tea Party movement, had been promoting the rally for several days (see Facebook posts here and here, for example).
The group scolded the state Senate Republicans on its own Facebook group:
Action 4 Liberty is also tight with the Dorr brothers, who the Republican Party and GOP legislative caucuses slammed in Minnesota Scammers Exposed, as we reported at the time in Who owns Trump brand in MN?: MN GOP, #mnleg caucuses' battle Dorr Bros, MAGASOTA "scams" on new website; MAGASOTA fights back.
Unicorn Riot's* Erin Gallagher tweeted about the Dorr family involvement in online anti-quarantine groups:
3 of the largest "against the quarantine" Facebook groups are admin'ed by the Dorr family, right-wing grifters who apparently do this a lot. There's a website (https://t.co/t6UD3YWKhx) and a Facebook page (https://t.co/o2UEC9VEXK) dedicated to exposing them. h/t @apokerplayer pic.twitter.com/Iak21e3LUu
— Erin Gallagher (@3r1nG) April 19, 2020
Another large Facebook group admin’ed by the Dorr brothers. Reopen Minnesota - 20,694 members. https://t.co/xOQLKSfy9X pic.twitter.com/9qnvdIxGNX
— Erin Gallagher (@3r1nG) April 19, 2020
A February 10 Facebook video featured Ben Dorr being interviewed for the Action4Liberty podcast:
According to the Minnesota Secretary of State's Business database, Action4Liberty was subject to an Involuntary Dissolution - Nonprofit Corporation (Domestic); in other words, it needs to filing some routine paperwork. That's the non-profit.
The group's Action 4 Liberty PAC's first quarter report was filed on April 14, 2020 with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. It reports no contributions and the cash on hand remains at 5,162.17.
We suspect that news reports will continue to brand the Liberate Rally--with its Proud Boy and Three Percenter elements plainly speaking in Liberate Minnesota rally at Governor's residence: Unicorn Riot's exclusive livesteam interviews--as "Republican." We'll continue to explore just what slice of "Republican" this is, guided by groups the Republican Party of Minnesota and it state-level caucuses have condemned.
Condemned in the past, at least. We're curious how Minnesota Republicans will respond to this level of fringe. It's not like the Tea Party, which wasn't defying public health measures, as far as we remember.
There's more to come, but we must move on to looking at the situation in midwest meatpacking plants whose workforces were forced to work in conditions that led to coronavirus clusters.
Stay safe and wash your hands.
Correction: Erin Gallagher (@3r1nG on Twitter) is not a member of the Unicorn Riot collective. We apologize for the error.
Screengrab: Liberate Minnesota co-host Randy Quick's Facebook banner.
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