MORNING VIEW, Ky.– On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, thousands of former President Donald Trump’s supporters flocked to a farm a half-hour south of Cincinnati.
Among the pastures and bales of hay, banners directing expletives at President Joe Biden adorned trucks and fences.
This was a celebration organized by former lawyer Eric Deters, a conservative firebrand, podcaster and self-described “legal outlaw.” He’s no stranger to controversy. A judge in 2020 banned him from the Hamilton County courthouse for comments Deters made on his podcast, “The Bulldog.”
Deters didn’t see anything wrong with organizing a Trump pep rally on 9/11. It was the first Freedom Fest, something he told the crowd he wants to hold annually on his 138-acre farm in the rural outpost of Morning View, Ky., just south of Independence.
Speaking that night were former Trump advisor and Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is currently dating Donald Trump Jr., and Fox News personality Tomi Lahren.
People came from all over the region, as far away as Batavia to Fairfield, united in their fealty to Trump, distrust of the COVID-19 vaccines and belief in the debunked myths surrounding the 2020 election and Trump’s discredited claims of a stolen election. No evidence exists of widespread voter fraud.
“We’re the outcasts of the country these days,” said Bill Albright.
The 57-year-old traveled from his home in Batavia with his girlfriend Kathi Brinegar. They gripped flag poles they held fast into the ground on the hillside where Deters had built a stage and amphitheater, the wind whipping their large flags that said “2020 was rigged”, “Unmasked, unmuzzled, unvaccinated, unafraid,” and “Joe Biden sucks.”
Among the group were several members of the Proud Boys, wearing their yellow and black colors and polo shirts. They are designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Both the SPLC and Anti-Defamation League describe the Proud Boys’ all-male membership as known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric.
During the speeches, one man in the Proud Boy colors flashed the ‘OK’ symbol, which the Anti-Defamation League and other civil rights groups say has been co-opted into a white supremecist symbol.
Hundreds of motorcycles thundered over the rolling hillsides and parked in front of the stage, forming a barricade between the stage and audience.
One of the bikers, Dwayne Turner, 51, of Goshen, told The Enquirer he was on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C. during the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6. He said he didn’t enter the Capitol, though.
He traveled to D.C. that day for Boots on the Ground Bikers for Trump organization to provide security for different groups.
“I was right on the steps,” Turner said. “They made it out more than what it really was. The main stream media has made it out to be an insurrection, to me it was a few people who were pissed off.”
But many of the people who were at Freedom Fest said they weren’t part of any group. About…
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