Tea Party Patriots

Tea Party Patriots (TPP) is a conservative group initially organized by Freedomworks, which was responsible for organizing the anti-healthcare reform town hall mobs that occurred during the congressional recess period in August, 2009. TPP purportedly organized the anti-government, anti-tax rallies that occurred in April, 2009, but apparently Freedomworks was responsible for organizing these protests as well. After FreedomWorks orchestrated the original "Tea Party protests" in April of 2009, it supposedly handed over the reins of the movement to a group named the "Tea Party Patriots," but Rolling Stone magazine reports that internal correspondence from TPP's private listserv made it clear that FreedomWorks was still directing the Tea Party Patriots' activities. In June, 2009, after activists on the TPP list-serve began advocating to change the Tea Party logo, a top official from FreedomWorks stepped in and shut down the discussion. "I talked to everyone here," wrote Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for FreedomWorks, "and there was consensus that we will keep the logo."^[1]

TPP consists of a website (http://teapartypatriots.org), the ownership of which is masked by ProtectPrivacy, located in the Netherlands.^[2] There is no "about", "staff", "directors" or other information identifying any individual as responsible for any part of the website, listed as a 501(c)(4) organization on the homepage.

Tea Party Patriots avail themselves of free website services from ning.com (teapartypatriots.ning.com), where Bob MacGuffie's page (teapartypatriots.ning.com/profile/BobMacGuffie),[3] connects the TPP with the writer of the activist-disrupter "Rocking the Town Hall" memo composed by MacGuffie. TPP is listed as co-sponsor of The 912 Project (912dc.org March on Washington, September 12, 2009).^[3]

A person identified as "Key Note Speaker, Mark Meckler, national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots" talked at the launch of the Tea Party Express bus tour.[4]

The Facebook page reports Tea Party Patriots National Coordinators, Amy Kremer, Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler.[5] Ironically, despite the heavy support of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News and other MSM properties, they use Facebook instead of Murdoch's MySpace.com.

Another Facebook page offers this list of National Coordinators and associates them with The 912 Project.[6]

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO.gov), the trademark was filed on July 9, 2009, by "Tea Party Patriots, Inc. CORPORATION GEORGIA Ste. 620-322 1025 Rose Creek Dr. Woodstock GEORGIA 30189." This is apparently as close to "official" headquarters as it is possible to identify.[7]

According to TPMMuckraker: "FreedomWorks Says Jump, Tea Partiers Ask How High.[8] ... But the discussion was soon cut short by Amy Kremer, the Tea Party Patriot national coordinator ... told the group: "Hey All, Not to be a pain, but this is not Tea Party Patriots logo to change. This is FreedomWorks logo and they have said they are keeping the original design."

News and Controversies

Supporting COVID-19 Misinformation Group

The Center for Media and Democracy discovered through investigative reporting that America's Frontline Doctors, which "has consistently spread misinformation about Covid, opposed vaccinations and mask use, and hawked unapproved Covid-19 drugs," was financially supported by the Tea Party Patriots Foundation. What makes a fiscal sponsor unique is that it can "accepts tax-deductible donations on behalf of the doctors' group and helps it with accounting. A fiscal sponsor allows an organization that has not received its 501(c)(3) charitable tax status to accept tax-deductible donations." This discovery was not the first time TPP had supported the spread of COVID misinformation. In July 2020, "the Tea Party Patriots hosted and funded an event with members of AFLD in front of the Capitol, where the doctors criticized business and school closings, social distancing, and mask wearing and claimed that malaria drug hydroxychloroquine could prevent and cure Covid-19." ^[4]

TPP Claims Democrats Endanger Suburban Lives

In the run-up to the 2020 Presidential election, numerous groups such as ALEC and the Tea Party patriots "ran dramatic ads against Biden and Kamala Harris, echoing GOP candidates' claims that Democrats will endanger suburbanites' lives." One such ad can be seen here.^[5]

Support for Stop the Steal Rallies

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, many groups around the country supported Stop the Steal rallies in which Republicans gathered to challenge the 2020 election results. One such event listed Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of TPP, as a speaker. That event ultimately winded up divulging into the deadly attack on our Capitol. TPP also announced before January 6th that it was “working with FreedomWorks, Turning Points, Heritage, and countless social media influencers to promote and hold 'Protect the Vote' rallies in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania." ^[6]

Defending Doctors Promoting Wack Covid Treatments

In a newsletter published during the COVID-19 pandemic, TPP argues that it is essential to stand up for doctors who "prescribe Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, or speak skeptically about the Covid vaccine or vaccine mandates." TPP, in the newsletter, asks their followers to harass medical boards across the country and to tell them "they are guilty of crimes against humanity if they continue to keep treatment from Covid patients." The "treatment" the group is referencing, according to the FDA, "taking large doses of ivermectin is dangerous."^[7]

Ties to Council for National Policy

Co-founder and CEO of TPP, Jenny Beth Martin, currently serves as the secretary of the board for the Council for National Policy. ^[8]

Council for National Policy

The Council for National Policy (CNP) is a secretive, Christian Right organization of funders and activists founded in 1981 by activist Morton Blackwell, commentator Paul Weyrich, direct-mail pioneer Richard Viguerie, right-wing activist Phyllis Schlafly and Left Behind author Tim LaHaye. Anne Nelson's book about CNP, Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right, describes how the organization connects "the manpower and media of the Christian right with the finances of Western plutocrats and the strategy of right-wing Republican political operatives.”

CNP membership as of September 2020 is available here.

Funding

Tea Party Patriots Action and Tea Party Patriots Foundation are not required to disclose their funders but nonprofit contributors can be found through a search of IRS filings. Here are some: