Exclusive – Mark Levin to Keynote Tea Party 5-Year Anniversary Event

Radio’s Mark Levin will keynote a five-year anniversary event for the Tea Party movement hosted by Tea Party Patriots in Washington, D.C., Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

“The Tea Party, which consists of millions of hard working taxpayers, is to be celebrated not condemned,” Levin told Breitbart News. “The ruling class must be trounced and its media cheerleaders must be exposed if the republic is to survive. The Tea Party is our only hope.  It’s a great honor to be asked to speak to such outstanding and courageous patriots,” he added. 

Levin, the host of The Mark Levin Show, served as the chief of staff to Attorney General Ed Meese during Ronald Reagan’s administration. He is the New York Times best-selling author of several books, and is the president of the Landmark Legal Foundation.

Levin will be delivering speaking alongside Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) at the Feb. 27 event, as will Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin among others.

Martin recently told Breitbart News the event will focus on lessons learned from the past five years of battle with the political establishment, and drafting a strategy for the movement moving forward.

“It’s amazing to think of all the things we have accomplished in the last five years, but there is much more work ahead,” Martin said. “This event will be a great opportunity for assessment but more importantly to map out a strategy for the next five years and beyond.”

Most observers point to CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s famous rant on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in February 2009 as the birth of the Tea Party movement. It formed in response to President Barack Obama’s push for a government takeover of healthcare combined with Americans’ dissatisfaction with Washington-generated bailouts.

Over the course of the past five years since the Tea Party’s formation, it has empowered the grassroots against the political establishment in a way never seen before in politics. Thanks to a combination of new media and innovative organizing tactics, conservatives nationwide have battled–and many times beaten–the most powerful political players from both parties and special interests from Wall Street and Hollywood.

As the Tea Party movement begins its next stages, its effectiveness can perhaps be measured no better than through how aggressively leftist Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is coming out swinging against it in 2014.

“Ever since its rise in 2009, the Tea Party’s influence has been undeniable,” Schumer said in 51-minute speech on how he plans to battle the Tea Party to the Center for American Progress in late January. “They’ve won elections, stymied Democratic priorities and taken a sledgehammer to programs that are important to tens of millions of Americans.”