Make no mistake, the “mostly peaceful” riots at the Tennessee Capitol last week under the guise of “gun safety” activism were all about power — organized and led by some well-heeled Generation Z groups with a pipeline to the Democrat-controlled White House.
Gun control extremists March For Our Lives and Gen-Z For Change hit social media to again recruit their young soldiers following the March 27 mass murders of three children and three adult staff members at The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville. Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a deranged 28-year-old who reportedly identified as a transgender male, stormed into the private school and mercilessly shot and killed her victims before police officers fatally shot Hale.
On cue, March For Our Lives and Gen-Z for Change called up a liberal army of protesters, helping again to turn tragic event into a political circus. Both groups were front and center for the left’s main event that saw far left State Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) expelled from office for conspiring to lead a riot during a House session. Jones used a bullhorn to actively incite the rioters, calling for sweeping gun control legislation. State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) narrowly escaped expulsion. Despite her House colleagues voting overwhelmingly to expel her (the vote was 65-30), a supermajority of 66 votes is required for expulsion.
Pearson, whose disorderly antics shut down government amid the pandemonium of what some have deemed an insurrection, declared his expulsion was an assault on democracy. Much of the mainstream media agreed with him, not unexpected from some of the same journalists that have billed as “mostly peaceful” the Black Lives Matter-led riots that burned down portions of Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020, for instance.
But Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said the liberal lawmakers broke just about every House rule on decorum, “taking over the Assembly, causing us to have to shut down and take a recess because of their actions.”
The disorder seemed all too reminiscent of the race riots of 2020, and very much choreographed and coordinated.
March For Our Lives joined forces with gun control activists Everytown for Gun Safety and Students Demand Action in organizing the latest student walkout. Thousands of young people turned up at the Tennessee Capitol, thousands more reportedly walked out of classrooms to protest in 41 states around the country.
Activists from Gen-Z for Change were on the scene capturing the chaos and pushing out short video clips through the organization’s network of “influencers” on TikTok and other social media platforms. The group, created by a teenager in 2020 with a mission to drive President Donald Trump out of office, did what it is paid to do: craft “social media content” to shape the narrative on a key liberal issue.
@genzforchange Update on Tennessee. #tennessee #genz #genzforchange #nashville
Chandler Quaile filed a piece on the scene for Storyful, a “social news and strategic intelligence agency.” The story included an interview with Jones.
Quaile just happens to be State Government Organizing Coordinator for Gen-Z For Change. According to his bio, he’s a 21-year-old student and activist at Vanderbilt University who is passionate about climate justice and immigrant justice. Chandler works in the Politics & Government Affairs department, where he works on state and local political issues and voter activation.
“Outside of Gen-Z for Change, he enjoys exploring Nashville and engaging in organizing for justice in his wider Tennessee community, especially for trans and unhoused LGBTQ+ people.”
In the video interview, Jones told Quaile that last week’s demonstrations were “about people power.”
It’s really about powerful people — on the left.
Follow the ‘Influencers’
According to InfluenceWatch, the group was founded as “Tik Tok For Biden” during the 2020 election and was organized with the goal of promoting Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign on emerging social media platform Tik Tok. It’s founder and executive director is 20-year-old Aidan Kohn-Murphy, whose parents Laurie Kohn and Chris Murphy are long-time liberal activists with ties to George Washington University. Murphy served as chief of staff to former Washington, D.C. Democrat Mayor Vincent Gray.
The former Tik Tok for Biden, rebranded as Gen-Z for Change and has continued to lend support to Democratic campaigns, including Senate runoff elections in Georgia and the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race, according to InfluenceWatch. The group also partnered with Anthony Fauci, former controversial director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to promote the COVID-19.
Gen-Z For Change maintains close ties to the Biden administration. It made headlines when its “influencers” received a briefing from the White House in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The meeting was to help shape public opinion among younger Americans in support of Biden’s policies.
“Just last week, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield held a briefing for around 40 Gen Z For Change creators, updating them on the latest iteration of the Build Back Better Act, hoping they’d share the good news with their 1.4 million followers on TikTok,” noted a November 2021 story in the Daily Dot, a “digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web.”
“Our leaders have been on the forefront of digital organizing, raising over $2m+ for abortion funds around the country and discussing the future of democracy with President Obama,” Gen-Z For Change’s website boasts. “Through our 2022 electoral work, we launched effective creator activations that generated a total of over 26 million+ views and supported many crucial campaigns with various celebrities and lawmakers.”
A year ago, the Daily Caller reported that the organization enlisted communications consultant and two-time Democratic presidential campaign staffer Madeline Twomey as its senior adviser and founding board member, according to the organization’s website. Twomey worked on Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign as Community Content Director, and served as an Advertising Budget Manager on Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. In addition, she has worked for Bully Pulpit Interactive and Priorities USA, two major pro-Democrat consulting firms, according to her LinkedIn page.
“Twomey took credit for ‘coaching’ the consortium of influencers on ‘how to talk about why they support Joe [Biden]’ during the 2020 campaign, in an interview with the Social Media & Politics podcast. Twomey explained that many of the influencers had ‘never talked’ about politics on their profile before,” the news outlet reported.
It’s difficult to say just what liberal sugar daddies are funding Gen-Z For Change. It had yet to file IRS documents detailing its revenue and expenses. And the 501(C)(4) nonprofit benefits from the same kind of “dark money” rules that the left has railed against the right about taking, shielding organizations from having to disclose the identity of donors.
March For Our Lives is the brainchild of David Hogg, survivor of the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School mass shootings in Florida turned extreme left-wing activist. Hogg has insinuated himself everywhere there is a camera in the furtherance of his liberal agenda — and himself.
“Young people are DONE with your bullshit @GOP you wanna a case study on how you lose a generation? This is how,” Hogg wrote in a tweet with a video of young protesters screaming at Tennessee lawmakers.
Young people are DONE with your bullshit @GOP you wanna a case study on how you lose a generation? This is how.
— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) March 31, 2023
Alexis Confer, March For Our Lives executive director, took in nearly $200,000 in salary and other payments, according to the latest filing. It should come as little surprise, Confer’s resume includes a stint with Everytown for Gun Safety, the Obama ’12 campaign, and employment in far left former New York Mayor Bill De Blasio’s office.
March For Our Lives reported nearly $4.1 million in total revenue in 2021, according to the latest tax records available. The nonprofit is not required to disclose its donors under federal law, but woke executives and Hollywood glitterati have pledged to fund the group. As the Washington Free Beacon reported in 2020, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and billionaire businessman Eli Broad both gave $1 million, two of six donors to do so. George Clooney and wife Amal Clooney gave $500,000, as did fashion company Gucci.
“The group reported $17,879,150 in contributions and grants over the course of 2018, its first year of operations,” the publication reported. “Ninety-five percent of those contributions came from 36 donations between $100,000 and $3,504,717—a grand total of $16,922,331.”
“As BuzzFeed reported, a litany of leftist organizations and politicos got involved, including the George Soros-backed MoveOn.org, Women’s March LA, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and, curiously, Planned Parenthood,” the Daily Signal reported following the March 2018 March for Our Lives protests.
7,000+ students left class and marched to the state Capital in Nashville with us today.
Young people are making headlines today so we don’t have to keep making obituaries. THIS is power. pic.twitter.com/PKTUPxC6z3
— March For Our Lives ☮️🟧 (@AMarch4OurLives) April 4, 2023
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Image “March4OurLives Protest at the Tennessee Capitol” by March4OurLives.
As someone at this event I can report I’m sad to see the lies written about Tennesseans peacefully protesting an undemocratic legislation. Like most events, many groups participated and were represented, all groups that fundraise, this is just a sad take to try to pretend people were paid or there’s some underlying conspiracy /dark money lib funding. It was attended by passionate citizens looking for change and widely supported, common sense gun control laws. So while I’m sure my comment will get removed since this is a site that supports right-wing propaganda, thought I’d give a perspective from someone who was actually there. Journalist standards anyone? What a deceptive headline. Maybe show up and find out the truth…
Out of state dark money funneled in for protest. This has a certain ring to it as was seen in the George Floyd rioting. It sounds like ANTIFA work. I am blaming no one, just saying that this targeted funds for protest needs analysis. At the core too, is the comment of consultations with Barry Obama who has been a Divider in Chief splitting the country along a racial divide. David Hobbs, whose clip was inserted above, appreciate that one cannot speak for all. You do not speak for the young generation. Open your eyes you’ll see many are deserting the Democrat party for the GOP given the astronomical rise in crime in democrat governed areas such as San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and San Diego. Read past MSM…..
Make no mistake, the Blue wave is coming for Tennessee. #gunsafetynow.
There needs to be a thorough investigation by our great State Ttorney General.
It was obvious that the fix was in for Ronna one again. Now she claims that she will not run again. That will not help after her establishment positioning has turned the GOP into more of a loser operation.
No revelation here, but it is good to see that it is being reported.
There was a story yesterday (April 9) in Business Insider online magazine entitled, “A Tennessee RNC member says vote to expel 2 Democratic lawmakers over a gun control protest hurt the GOP brand: ‘You’ve energized young voters against us’.”
This has to be one of the most ignorant, foolish comments that I have ever heard from a supposedly savvy Republican ‘pol’. Probably a RINO ‘pol’. Dumb as dumb can be. How do these people gain their positions on these important Republican Party bodies? Sounds to me like we need a good ‘housecleaning’ at the RNC. This person–whoever he/she is–is probably anit-MAGA too. (As an aside, I watched the most recent vote for RNC Chair on NEWSMAX a few months ago. This vote re-elected Ronna Romney McDaniel as RNC Chair. The vote was by secret ballot–something which I strongly object to by a quasi-public body with national public implications, such as helping nominate a Republican candidate for President. Sounds to me like Tennessee can do better in its choice of RNC representatives!)