After a fundraiser for people arrested during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was rejected by a Towson bar, and its promotion at a Baltimore County hotel turned out to be false, the event was held at a private residence Tuesday night.
In an email to The Baltimore Sun Monday evening, leaders of the Charles Village Pub & Patio in Towson said they decided not to provide a venue for the Republican Women of Baltimore County and the Patriot Club of America to host the fundraiser, which was scheduled for Tuesday evening.
“Due to the overall feedback and safety for all staff & patrons, Charles Village Pub & Patio (Cvp Towson) has decided to decline the use of the venue for (the) event,” the bar’s leadership wrote.
The organization posted an update to its website Tuesday, saying that the venue had changed “due to an overwhelming response.” Though the website did not list the new location, flyers circulating on social media initially indicated the Delta Hotel by Marriott in Hunt Valley.
Reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, a woman who identified herself as a manager at the Delta Hotel told The Baltimore Sun that the Republican Women of Baltimore County had canceled the event there, as well. She declined to give her name, and said she did not know about any plans to reschedule the fundraiser.
Following that, the Tuesday event was livestreamed on Facebook and held at a private residence.
A flyer and details for the fundraiser posted on the Republican Women of Baltimore County’s website said tickets were $20 per person and would raise money “for the political prisoners of Jan 6th.” Family members of some of the people charged in the Jan. 6 riot were expected to attend, according to the event description.
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The Republican Women of Baltimore County did not respond Monday or Tuesday to emails from The Sun seeking more information about the fundraiser.
Delta Hotels is a brand of Marriott International, the hotel chain based in Bethesda. Representatives for Marriott did not answer an email requesting confirmation that the event had been canceled.
The event had met backlash on social media, with online commenters condemning Charles Village Pub & Patio for agreeing to be the host. The Towson bar, a popular spot for local university students since the 1980s, has been a venue for gatherings of the Republican Women of Baltimore County, according to the group’s website, including an August dinner with Republican Attorney General candidate Michael Peroutka, speaking about “voter discrepancies in Maryland,” and a May screening of “2000 Mules,” a documentary by Dinesh D’Souza that makes false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Reaction to plans for the fundraiser prompted one similarly named Baltimore bar to make a statement online clarifying that it has no affiliation with the Towson pub.
“PSA: We are not affiliated with CVP Towson in any way, shape, or form. Thank you for coming to our TED talk,” the Charles Village Pub posted on its Facebook page on Friday. Another message was posted to Twitter on Saturday.
Owner Tony Weir said the Charles Village Pub, located at 3107 St. Paul near the Johns Hopkins University, was founded by the same people who started the Charles Village Pub & Patio in Towson. But the Baltimore pub was later sold, and the two businesses have not been affiliated for years.
Weir, who bought the Charles Village Pub in 2015, said he had been getting phone calls in recent days from customers concerned that his bar was associated with the Republican Women of Baltimore County’s fundraiser.
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He said the confusion was “an unfortunate situation” and that he decided to post a clarifying statement because “I don’t want to have my business affected by someone else.”
Weir said customers have been supportive after hearing that his bar is not connected to the event. Asked whether he would ever consider a name change to distinguish his business from the Towson bar, Weir said he didn’t want to let go of a name that carries a lot of goodwill in the neighborhood.
Weir said he stays away from hosting political events at the Charles Village Pub.
“I don’t think that politics should be part of the bar scene,” he said. “We don’t want to alienate anyone.”
In addition to Tuesday’s event, the Republican women’s club had advertised a Feb. 21 “Dinner and a Movie” event at the Charles Village Pub in Towson, where the club said it would screen an Epoch Times documentary that claims the Jan. 6 attack was not a violent insurrection.
However, a spokesperson for the restaurant said Tuesday that “CVP Towson has also declined the use of our space for the 2/21 event as well.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Dan Belson contributed to this article.