UPDATE: Protesters Say Weekend Rally At Zeldin Event Was Peaceful

Representatives of local activist groups that recently rallied outside of an event that U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin attended in East Patchogue, have said—despite claims from his staff—that the protest was, in fact, peaceful.

Austin Sposato, co-founder of Port Jefferson-based activist group Project Free Knowledge, said on Friday that rally organizers asked police to attend the January 28 event and that there was no damage done to private property.

On Thursday, Mr. Zeldin’s communications director, Jennifer DiSiena said in an email that during a rally outside of a Rotary Club of Shirley and the Mastics meeting in East Patchogue where Mr. Zeldin was awarded Man of the Year, protesters used “reprehensible tactics to harass attendees” including “banging on the sides of the cars driving by and jumping in front of cars to stop them.”

“That’s simply false,” Mr. Sposato said regarding Ms. DiSiena’s comments. “That is slanderous. We have probably 150 eyewitnesses there. They’re good people. They came out on a cold dark night to demand that their representative speak with them. It’s a pretty low bar.”

Suffolk County Police did not immediately return calls seeking comment. A video of the rally obtained by The Press shows protesters standing alongside the road outside of the event held at Sunset Harbor Catering with signs, allowing vehicles to pass.

According to an email from Cindy Morris, founder of Suffolk County activist group Time2Care Long Island, Suffolk County Police were in attendance at the rally, at her request, and she did not witness any disturbances.

“I encouraged everyone to recognize that we were standing in front of private residences and that the people living there should be disturbed as little as possible,” Ms. Morris wrote. “The police did not have to step in a single time to ensure this was done.”

Mr. Sposato agreed with Ms. Morris and noted that most of the 150 rally attendees were local, and mainly women over the age of 45.

According to Ms. Morris, the group had planned to attend a meeting at Rogers Memorial Library on April 13 as “community members with questions for our Congressional representative.” That event was canceled by Mr. Zeldin’s office this week after reports of protests.

Library officials said that Mr. Zeldin was scheduled to speak at the April event, which has been hosted by the library for many years, to give a Washington legislative update. A question and-answer period would have followed his speech. Elizabeth Burns, the library director, said on Friday that they plan to explore the possibility of rescheduling the event.

U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin canceled an upcoming meeting at Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton Village following reports that a local organization planned to hold a rally at the event.

According to Mr. Zeldin’s communications director, Jennifer DiSiena, the April event was canceled due to concerns over anticipated harassment from a local activist group—a group she declined to identify.

“This meeting was co-opted, renamed and re-branded by a group of liberal activists who were already holding strategy meetings to turn it into a disruptive show for their own political theater,” Ms. DiSiena said in an email on Thursday.

The cancellation comes just days after protesters disrupted an event where Mr. Zeldin was awarded Man of the Year. The rally, dubbed “Listen Up Lee Zeldin” was held outside a Shirley Rotary Club meeting in East Patchogue on January 28. According to a press release from local activist organizations Project Free Knowledge, Patchogue Indivisible Against Hate and Time2Care Long Island, the rally was in response to an alleged refusal from Mr. Zeldin’s staff to schedule a meeting to talk, despite multiple requests from the organizations.

“Members will gather to hold Mr. Zeldin accountable for a tactic that has become pervasive among Republican members of Congress in recent weeks: a refusal to engage with constituents organizing against politicians who obscure crucial information about the consequences of their actions, who fail to question the inflammatory remarks and outright falsehoods of the new administration, and who deny the hard truths of issues like climate change or the presidential cabinet’s conflicts of interest,” the East Patchogue rally coordinators wrote in a press release. “Regardless of his intentions, Mr. Zeldin has an obligation to explain his lack of availability and to begin direct communication with constituents.”

However, Ms. DiSiena claimed that the rally over the weekend was not civil and was a factor in the decision to cancel the upcoming April meeting in Southampton Village.

“It is greatly unfortunate that this great event, which the Congressman has attended before, was hijacked by those—who just this past weekend—chose reprehensible tactics to harass attendees at an event the Congressman was at, including banging on the sides of the cars driving by and jumping in front of cars to stop them. Requiring a police presence just to get cars through into a venue does not reflect well or help their cause,” Ms. DiSiena wrote in an email on Thursday.

Coordinators of the rally could not immediately be reached for comment.

In response to communication concerns, Ms. DiSiena noted that Mr. Zeldin was “frequently at events across the entire 1st Congressional District,” including during the evening and on weekends. She added that he also holds mobile office hours across the district, conducts telephone “town halls” and distributes a monthly email newsletter.

“Every single constituent who contacts our office receives a response from the Congressman or staff by either phone, email or letter,” she wrote in an email. “Congressman Zeldin has had two straight years of public forums, telephone town halls, and mobile office hours. The legislative calendar at this particular moment in time is packed. Staff is always on hand to take immediate concerns and get them to him and the legislative team. We already have several mobile office hours and telephone town halls being planned for the year.”

Mr. Zeldin, who was reelected to represent the 1st Congressional District this past November, attended an event at the Rogers Memorial Library last February, when he gave a speech about focusing his efforts working on three committees in the House of Representatives: Transportation and Infrastructure, Foreign Affairs, and Veteran Affairs.

It was unclear whether the event would be rescheduled.