In 2020, Tea Party Patriots hosted and funded the "America's Frontline Doctors" event promoting use of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure to COVID-19. In 2021, Tea Party Patriots was among 11 groups listed on the website of the "March to Save America", the pro-Trump rally that led to the storming of the United States Capitol.
History
Obama years, 2009–2017
Representative Ron Paul of Texas addressing the Tea Party Patriots American Policy Summit in Phoenix, Arizona in 2011
Rick Santelli, an editor for the CNBC Business News network, is credited as being a catalyst in the early formation of the Tea Party movement through a statement he made on February 19, 2009.[4]
In 2010, Tea Party Patriots was among the 12 most influential groups in the Tea Party movement according to the National Journal,[9] and among the top five according to The Washington Post.[10] In September 2010, the group announced it had received a $1 million donation from an anonymous donor.[11] The money was distributed to its affiliated groups and must be spent by Election Day, though it could not be used to directly support any candidate.[11] In 2010, the group reportedly included over 2,200 local chapters.[12]
In July 2012, the group's Atlanta chapter partnered with the Sierra Club and the NAACP to defeat a proposed transit tax in Atlanta. The referendum was defeated by a margin of 63 percent.[15]
On July 27, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tea Party Patriots hosted and funded a press conference in Washington, D.C., at which they introduced "America's Frontline Doctors", a group founded by Simone Gold that promotes misleading and erroneous medical advice regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Video of the press conference, published by Breitbart News, was promoted by Donald Trump and viewed millions of times before it was removed by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for spreading misinformation.[1][2][3][17][18]
March to Save America
The Tea Party Patriots were among 11 groups listed on the website of the March to Save America, the pro-Trump rally in 2021 that led to the storming of the Capitol.[19]
A 2011 investigation by the magazine Mother Jones alleged that the Tea Party Patriots organization was using its 501(c)(4) status to avoid disclosing its expenditures both to the IRS and to local contributors. The magazine reported that when local Tea Party groups pressed for more details on the group's expenses, they were removed from the umbrella organization and threatened with legal action.[24] The magazine reported that Tea Party Patriots "has started to resemble the Beltway lobbying operations its members have denounced."[25]
In 2014, The Washington Post reported that Tea Party Patriots president Jenny Beth Martin was receiving two salaries from the organization: a $15,000 per month fee for strategic consulting and a $272,000 salary as president, with total annual compensation over $450,000.[26]
^Burghart, Devin, and Leonard Zeskind. Tea Party Nationalism: A Critical Examination of the Tea Party Movement and the Size, Scope, and Focus of Its National Factions. Rep. Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, Fall 2010. Web. "Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on November 24, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
