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The Anne Arundel County restaurant that was announced as the venue for a Republican rally originally called “Unite the Right” said they are not involved with the event.
Mother’s Peninsula Grille in Arnold never booked the planned Oct. 22 rally, which has changed its name to “Maryland United” after The Baltimore Banner reported that the original name is the same as the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville.
Mother’s Peninsula Grille posted a statement on its social media accounts, in all capital letters: “It has come to our attention that there was a political event advertised to be held at Mothers Oct. 22. We don’t have any such event confirmed at our location. We have a different performer scheduled to perform that evening. There will be no political event here Oct. 22.”
A restaurant manager declined to comment further.
Organizers of the event, including WBAL Radio talk show host and former Congressional candidate Kim Klacik and her Red Renaissance political action committee, could not be reached for comment Wednesday morning.
As of Wednesday morning, an online event invitation still listed Mother’s Peninsula Grille as the location.
The 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville attracted participants who engaged in racist, antisemitic and anti-Islamic behavior, including a tiki-torch-lit night rally where participants chanted “Jews will not replace us.”
One woman was killed and dozens more were injured when a man drove through a crowd of counter-protesters nearby, and two Virginia State Police troopers were killed when their helicopter crashed while flying to the event. The driver of the car, James Alex Fields, pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges and was sentenced to life in prison.
Two local co-hosts of the Anne Arundel County event told The Baltimore Banner that they did not realize the event, planned to be a unifying event among candidates and voters, shared the name of the deadly white supremacist rally. One of the original co-hosts, LaToya Nkongolo, said she’s no longer part of the event.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox, who was scheduled to attend, quickly withdrew from the event.
Klacik initially doubled down on “Unite the Right,” but later renamed the rally “Maryland United.”
pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Pamela Wood covers Maryland politics and government. She previously reported for The Baltimore Sun, The Capital and other Maryland newspapers. A graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, she lives in northern Anne Arundel County.
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