FACT CHECK: Koch Network is NOT Behind ‘Operation Gridlock’ and Other Anti-Quarantine Protests

The fake news media is in high gear attempting to discredit the anti-quarantine protests that are sweeping the nation, with the familiar left-wing Koch bogeyman being used to smear the gatherings.

“Recent anti-quarantine protests were organized by FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots, backed by Koch Industries,” claimed Democracy Now, a Soros-funded propaganda operation.

“Convention of States Action (COSA), another conservative group in billionaire industrialist Koch’s funding network, is also helping mobilize the protests, which have sprung up in states such as Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin and have seen many participants not wearing masks or socially distancing,” wrote left-wing blog Common Dreams.

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They added: “COSA argues that “only a small number of counties have experienced high rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths,” and, thus, statewide shutdowns should not happen. “Decisions to open the economy and return to work can largely be left with local officials,” the group states.”

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“Groups like the right-wing Heritage Organization and the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity are also funding efforts to oppose the shutdowns,” wrote the infamously far-left outlet Salon in a claim that turned out to be blatantly wrong.

Pathetically, even some right-wing commentators have joined in on the campaign to demonize thousands of small business owners and other patriots who want to get back to work and are taking the streets.

Protests are being supported by Koch money.

Reminder: the Kochs are pro open border libertarians who hate Trump, MAGA, nationalism, and have ZERO interest in taking on China.

MAGA types should steer well clear of these folks. pic.twitter.com/OFMfBpjFgj

— Raheem Kassam 😷 (@RaheemKassam) April 17, 2020

However, the Koch Network is directly opposed to these rallies. They have opposed President Donald Trump vehemently and do not want to be associated with rallies featuring activists proudly displaying Trump flags as they push back against shutdown tyranny.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which serves as the primary political arm for the Koch network, has denigrated the rallies and urged their activists not to attend them. They would prefer to control the process with their lobbyist and billionaire bucks then have the people make their stand.

“The question is — what is the best way to get people back to work? We don’t see protests as the best way to do that,” Emily Seidel, CEO of AFP, said in a statement.

“Instead, we are working directly with policymakers to bring business leaders and public health officials together to help develop standards to safely reopen the economy without jeopardizing public health. The choice between full shutdown and immediately opening everything is a false choice,” she added.

AFP top brass noted that they have abandoned their constituents once they realized that they could not exploit them and keep them on the globalist reservation.

“I think there’s been a lesson,” said Frayda Levin, a board member for AFP. “We saw what we wanted in the tea party. It didn’t work out like we’d like. And now we’re much more practical.”

Michigan Conservative Coalition member Meshawn Maddock, whose organization was behind the wildly successful “Operation Gridlock” protests last week, confirmed that AFP chose not to provide support for the organizing effort when she was reaching out to like-minded groups throughout the state.

“These protests have been the most beautiful form of grassroots organizing that our state and now the nation has seen in decades. No money was ever needed or ever used to motivate thousands and thousands of everyday people to show up and demand their rights that are being stolen from them by tyrannical leaders,” Maddock told Big League Politics.

Maddock noted that when she reached out to different right-leaning organizing groups throughout the state that the Michigan Freedom Fund offered to do a small social media ad buy of $240. This led to widespread media accusations that the Fund, which is financially linked to the influential DeVos family, was masterminding the protests, and they were somehow the brain child of Education Secretary Betsy Devos.

“To suggest that DeVos could co-opt this movement with a $240 Facebook advertisement is pathetic and only used by leftist leaders like Governor Gretchen Whitmer and should never be repeated by conservative leaders,” Maddock said.

The fake news will stop at nothing to keep the coronavirus pandemic fear alive even if it means discouraging people from peacefully exercising their constitutional rights with false and misleading information.

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