Conservative and far-right speakers to headline third Patriot Fest this weekend in Naples, Fla.
Nearly two dozen local and national far-right and conservative speakers will take the stage this weekend at Naples’ third Patriot Fest, including U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, singer Ted Nugent and former entertainment lawyer-turned-conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley, also known as DC Draino on Instagram.
Speakers will cover topics such as school boards, how race is addressed in schools, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida politics, said Brendon Leslie, organizer of the event and founder and editor-in-chief of the far-right news site Florida’s Conservative Voice.
“Naples is one of the most conservative towns in Florida, and it just makes sense to have a conservative gathering here,” Leslie said.
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Patriot Fest will take place from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday in Sugden Regional Park in East Naples.
The first iteration of Patriot Fest was held last May and attracted about 450 people, while the second, held in September, saw about 800 attendees, Leslie said. As of March 11, he had sold about 600 tickets and expected to double that in the final week before the event, he said.
“The event is just to keep everyone … inspired and motivated … as we head into these midterm elections,” he said.
Greene is a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump and is perhaps best known for her controversial Twitter presence and hard-right views. In January, Greene lost her committee assignments 15 days after her swearing in when lawmakers punished her for incendiary social media posts.
Additionally, one of Greene’s accounts was permanently banned by Twitter for spreading misinformation around COVID-19, though she maintains access to her official account as a state representative.
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Southwest Florida speakers include conservative Naples grocer Alfie Oakes, who participated in the "Save America March" in Washington, D.C., on the day of the riots at the Capitol and funded two busloads of local supporters to attend the pro-Trump rally.
Oakes denied any involvement in the insurrection, telling the Naples Daily News after he returned from the rally that protesters were "supporting liberty and freedom."
U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, who was in the original lineup for Saturday's event, will no longer be attending due to a scheduling conflict, Leslie said.
Florida’s Conservative Voice is a private organization funded by Leslie, a communications and marketing specialist from Long Island, New York, who has more than 60,000 followers on Twitter. The site has fewer than 600 likes on Facebook and 608 followers.
Leslie is the main funder of the event. Advertisers for the event are Facebook page “Wake Up Speak Up Step Up,” conservative Cryptocurrency LGB Coin (which stands for Let’s Go Brandon, according to its Coin Market Cap page), Becker Home Maintenance, former Collier County Planning Commissioner Patrick Dearborn and The Allegro Group FL, a local landscaping company. Leslie declined to disclose the dollar amount of sponsorship for the event.
Leslie was also present at the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building, attending both the Trump rally beforehand and the protest outside, as well as following rioters inside the Capitol building. He rode there on one of the buses provided by Oakes and was there as a journalist, he said.
Upon request, Leslie provided a video that showed him standing in front of a line of Capitol police, shouting to the crowd outside the Capitol building, "they (the Capitol police) are not the enemy, don't forget that ... they're destroying inside the House, man, it's not good ... it's one thing to occupy, it's another thing to attack."
He added that he had been tear-gassed when he was at the front of the crowd.
So far, 86 Floridians have been arrested and charged for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, two of them from Collier County, none from Lee.
At least three people who were there representing themselves as media and citing websites or YouTube channels they ran were also arrested: John Sullivan, Samuel Christopher Montoya and Matthew Thomas Purse.
Leslie has not been charged or arrested, according to a Paste BN Network search of publicly available data. He said he provided Capitol police with his identification as media with his site (at the time named Uncovering Swfl) on the day and was given permission to enter the Capitol to document the rioters. Leslie said the FBI has declined to charge him.
"(I am) 150% a Trump voter all day, every day," Leslie said in a text message. "A rioter? Absolutely not."
According to Leslie's own Facebook Live video and third-party footage pulled by Sedition Hunters, a global group of people working to identify those at the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, Leslie did not wear a lanyard with a press badge or other clothing identifying him as a journalist.
Leslie after publication said he did not identify himself as a journalist for his own protection as he was at a riot.
On the day of the insurrection he told FOX 4 that he believed he would be monitoring a peaceful protest.
Leslie said that after a FOX 4 segment and Salon.com identified him as a trespasser who stormed the Capitol building, he received hateful messages, death threats and became depressed.
Kate Cimini is an investigative journalist covering Florida. Share your story at (239) 207-9369 or email kcimini@gannett.com.