Despite police from a neighboring jurisdiction blocking entrances to Jordan Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Friday, an estimated 300 people showed up for the “No Surrender” rally to protest Rep. Charlie Dent’s (R-PA) ongoing obstruction of President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Pennsylvanians helped elect the president and now they want to see his agenda succeed in Washington, Ed Martin, of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, one of the sponsors of the rally, told Breitbart News.
“[Dent] has made it clear that he’s not going to support Trump’s agenda,” Martin said.
Martin said he was told by the Allenstown Police that police in Whitehall, Pennsylvania, limited access to the park, but at least 300 people made it to the rally to hear from a range of speakers, including Daphne Goggins, a Republican ward leader from North Philadelphia and a strong supporter of Trump and the “No Surrender” campaign.
Dent’s anti-Trump stance started before Trump was elected, when he asked the RNC to encourage Trump to drop out of the race.
“The chairman of the RNC must look out for the good of the party as a whole, so he should be working to get Trump to step down,” Dent said at the time.
Dent also was one of only two Republicans who voted against defunding Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Dent also opposed Trump’s effort to temporarily stop people from six countries identified as having active terrorists from coming into the United States.
“You can’t do that to people,” Dent said at the time.
Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, which also sponsored the rally, told Breitbart News that Dent heads up the “Tuesday Group,” which describes itself as a group of “moderate” or “center-right” House members. But Manning said the group is liberal and has fought conservatives in Congress over legislation favored by Trump, including the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“For all intents and purposes Dent is a member of the Democratic Caucus,” Manning said, adding Dent is more “comfortable” working with liberals like Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) than conservatives in Congress and the president.
“We need more support from people in [the president’s] party,” Martin said, adding that Americans are “fed up” with obstructionism, particularly from Republicans who are not supporting the president.
Martin and Manning said more rallies are planned to hold lawmakers accountable and to get back to moving Trump’s agenda forward, including construction of a wall on the southern border, stopping illegal immigration and amnesty programs like DACA, and getting the United States out of trade deals that hurt American workers.
“The America First Trump agenda,” Martin said.