Moms for Liberty Rail Against Protesters Outside Their Town Hall

Moms for Liberty decried the protesters who demonstrated outside the group's town hall event in New York City on Thursday.

The "parental rights" nonprofit has gained national prominence since its founding in 2021, initially to oppose COVID-19 regulations in schools. Since then, Moms for Liberty has worked to elect right-wing school board candidates, oppose teachings about race in schools, curb the rights of LGBTQ+ students, and advocate for book bans. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated Moms for Liberty an anti-government extremist group.

Nearly a hundred protesters gathered outside the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association on Manhattan's Upper East Side to protest the Moms for Liberty event on Thursday night after it was promoted by elected officials and a caucus of the city's teacher's union, according to the New York Daily News.

Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich took to social media to criticize those who protested the event, which organizers said was sold out.

"The event was open to the public but they chose to stand in 25 degrees and chant at the building over coming inside for a discussion," she wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

In a statement to Newsweek, Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice said that she had challenged Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, to a debate about the "real challenges facing public education."

Weingarten "refused to debate," Justice said. "Instead, she organized rallies to protest the Town Hall we held to hear from NYC parents about the challenges facing their kids in public education.

"Sadly, the education cartel thinks public education is just a political game. It is not. It is real and that is why you are seeing more and more parents get involved and stand up to fight for their parental rights."

A spokesperson for Weingarten sent Newsweek a statement from earlier this month responding to Justice's invitation.

"When extremist groups start to crumble they resort to stunts and smears to try and stay relevant," Andrew Crook said in the statement. "Well, the time for stunts and smears is over. Educators are getting on with the real work of helping kids recover and thrive. Tiffany and whatever remains of Moms For Liberty should do the same."

Thursday's event came as Moms for Liberty works to gain a foothold in more Democratic-leaning states after many of their candidates lost school board elections in November. It also follows recent scandals, including co-founder Bridget Ziegler's admission of a three-way sexual encounter with her husband and a woman accusing him of rape.

Local lawmakers had urged the venue to cancel the event, and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine on Wednesday announced a protest outside the venue, attended by several state lawmakers and Representative Jerry Nadler, who has called Moms for Liberty "nothing more than an alt-right hate group vilifying the LGBTQ+ community."

At the protest, Levine told the crowd: "We know that Moms for Liberty are a bunch of hypocrites. You don't believe in liberty if you want to ban books. You don't believe in liberty if you're afraid of teaching history. You don't believe in liberty if you won't let kids be who they are...if you attack trans kids, if you attack the parents of trans kids, that's not liberty, that's fascism."

In a post on X alongside a video of his remarks, Levine wrote that Moms for Liberty had "tried to establish a beachhead in Manhattan with a (poorly attended) town hall on the Upper East Side. We mounted a huge protest outside to call out their hypocrisy and their hatred. Democracy won this round."

Justice responded to Levine's post: "This guy had an invite to come on stage and speak to people all over the country. Instead, he stood outside in 25 degree weather with people who were yelling curse words and pounding drums. Mark, with all due respect, you are a fool."

In a statement to Newsweek, Levine said, "There was a huge crowd of democracy-loving Manhattan parents outside that I was thrilled to speak to. Inside was George Santos, Andrew Giuliani, Billboard Chris, and almost none of the 1.7 million people who actually live in Manhattan. Tiffany, with all due respect, your event flopped."

Last year, Moms for Liberty attracted protesters in Philadelphia when they held their national summit in the city. Speakers at the summit included former president Donald Trump, as well as his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.

Update 1/19/24, 12 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to add comment from Mark Levine.