Trump supporters gathered at the White House Sunday afternoon to protest political violence at a “Rally For Peace,” calling out establishment journalists for creating a climate of partisan hatred that has recently exploded with a shocking attack near the nation’s capital.
The “Rally For Peace” was held in Washington, DC, by Trump supporters and conservatives aiming to protest political violence and the media voices that incite it. The recent shooting at a congressional baseball practice in which five were wounded and Republican politician Steve Scalise was hospitalized was a topic of discussion at the event, as well as the riots caused by radical leftist antifa groups at conservative events across the country, including former Breitbart Senior Editor Milo Yiannopoulos’s event at Berkeley in February.
The event was organized by conservative political activist Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich, independent author and InfoWars radio host.
Cernovich challenged activists on the left to a public debate, offering up $1 million to charity in exchange for a live broadcasted debate between Cernovich and Sam Harris and Alex Jones and Keith Olbermann. Cernovich claimed that despite this offer, the leftist commentators refused to respond to the debate request:
Other “New Right” pro-Trump figures spoke at the rally, including Virginia politician Corey Stewart, who can be seen addressing the crowd in the video below:
While Gateway Pundit reporter Lucian Wintrich and Big League Politics contributor Cassandra Fairbanks listed a number of fake hate crimes committed over the past year in an attempt to paint Trump supporters and conservatives as racists.
The rally was not interrupted by antifa anarchists or far-left protesters, but a rival alt-right protest formed nearby. Conservative groups such as the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers were on hand to provide security as they do at many other events.
Former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone was set to speak at the event but reportedly could not appear due to security concerns. InfoWars host Alex Jones was unable to attend the event as he was spending the day with his family but did send a note of apology to Mike Cernovich which was read aloud by Jack Posobiec at the event.
Demonstrators shared videos and photos from the event, displaying American flags, “Kekistan” meme references, and lots of Trump campaign-style “MAGA” merchandise:
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was in attendance, clearly spooked by increased scrutiny after a fan of the “anti-hate” group attempted to murder dozens of Republican lawmakers. The gunman, the late James Hodgkinson, is the second high-profile case of a left-wing partisan attacking an SPLC target; in August 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins attempted to “kill as many as possible” at the DC office of the Family Research Council, using the SPLC website’s “Hate Map” to pick the site for a mass shooting.
The SPLC’s representative behaved like a campaign tracker Sunday, tweeting quotes from speakers and attendees as proof of right-wing bigotry. In one of three tweets covering the rally, the SPLC @hatewatch account incorrectly identified one attendee as a “speaker” and singled him out for saying left-wing activist billionaire George Soros should be put in a “gas chamber.”
Reached for comment, Posobiec attacked “fake news” SPLC for its factual error and touted the event as a success:
I did not hear his comments which were not made at my rally, and I disavow any and all hate speech from both the left and the right. He is not a speaker he was not on my speaking bill and did not speak at the rally. SPLC is fake news. I got a crowd of Trump supporters to sing “Give Peace a Chance” by John Lennon, and that’s a testament to our commitment to peace and our stand against violence and violent rhetoric.
SPLC has refused to retract its attacks on Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) which accuse him of being a white supremacist, even after Hodgkinson shot Scalise in the hip during a practice for the annual Congressional Baseball Game charity event and put the House Majority Whip in critical condition.
Other left-wing figures have mocked and attacked Scalise and Republicans in the aftermath of the shooting, and establishment reporters as a whole have moved on from the shocking assault — in contrast to the weeks spent forcing Republicans to answer for the 2011 shooting of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (R-AZ) — whose attacker had no political motivation.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com