The controversial Trump Nazi billboard at Grand Avenue and Taylor Street in downtown Phoenix caught the attention of Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group. The group claimed this week the billboard owner has received thousands of dollars in grants from an arts program that receives public money.
According to Judicial Watch, which investigates and prosecutes government corruption, “Shortly after the billboard was erected Judicial Watch filed a public records request with the city of Phoenix to obtain details related to public monies connected to organizations and organizers of the sign. This week Judicial Watch received the documents that show the city of Phoenix has awarded Beatrice Moore, the Trump Nazi billboard owner and a prominent figure in the local art community, thousands of dollars in grants for a program she runs called Grand Avenue Arts & Preservation (GAP), which encompasses the Art Detour event where the Nazi billboard made its debut.”
However, Moore received $3,500 from the city of Phoenix in July 2016, before Trump was elected. According to a Facebook post by Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio, “Those monies were given well before Trump was elected and were given to an organization sponsoring a downtown art fair. However, she (Moore) is a member of that organization and has written a letter saying these were her personal monies.”
Moore also received “government grant monies,” including the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the money is used for “artists’ fees,” according to Judicial Watch. It is unknown which artists and what art specifically was funded by the Commission through Moore’s organization.
Judicial Watch noted that the media failed to uncover the “important fact that taxpayer dollars are behind it.” The media did play up the alleged death threats that the artist, Karen Fiorito, has received.
In March, the ADI reported that the media was also blaming Rep. Kelly Townsend for a paintball attack on the billboard. A Facebook post by Townsend was credited as the inspiration for the attack.
Those reports also ignored that during the run-up to the 2016 General Election, the paintball Trump theme littered the pages Facebook.
In response to those reports, Townsend issued a statement on her Facebook page: “If I am being blamed for the recent paintball incident of the less-than-artistic billboard of President Trump with Nazi-like symbols because of my Facebook post, then by the same standards, Barak Obama is culpable for all the violent protests incited by his own “If they bring a knife, we bring a gun” comment that he made on the campaign trail in Philadelphia in 2008. Or perhaps if anyone is killed in upcoming protests, it would be of the same lens that we accuse Valerie Jarret for her recent video that gives a tacit approval of bloodshed to accomplish the goals of the civil rights movement. However, it is my belief that each man and woman is individually responsible for their own actions and whoever is responsible for the vandalism should be held accountable. I am not regretful of my comments and have an inherent right to voice my own disdain, and refuse to be silenced by political correctness.”
Just this week, Majority Whip Townsend helped push through Governor Doug Ducey’s budget which included $1,500,000 for the Arizona Commission on the Arts.
It is unlikely that the taxpayers intended to fund inflammatory advertising for politically motivated “art patrons.”.