Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks, and other takeaways from Mike Lindell's Springfield event

Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and a leading election conspiracy theorist, brought out a surprise guest on Sunday morning during his weekend-long "summit" in Springfield: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The Georgia Republican took the stage on the second day of the event, which brought attendees from across the U.S., most of them from outside Missouri, to the Springfield Expo Center. She lambasted both Democrats, saying their policies are "ruining our country," and fellow Republicans.

"The reason why I came here is I've recently gotten really tired of being told 'Marjorie, don't talk about the election,'" Greene said.

"You have poured money and time you didn't have, of course money you didn't have," she told the crowd. "You have probably lost friends, maybe you lost a job. Maybe you've lost faith at times, but you found it again and you keep fighting."

More: PowerPoints, prayer and a missing sheriff: Inside Mike Lindell's Springfield conference

Lindell's message centers on grievances with media, spreading the word

The MyPillow CEO was not on stage at all times throughout the conference, often leaving hosting duties to co-hosts affiliated with his TV station.

When Lindell was on stage, he spent most of his time criticizing media coverage about him — lambasting national newspapers like the New York Times as well as local outlets, and TV stations ranging from CNN and Fox News to Newsmax and One America Now. He ticked through a series of articles written about him — the Associated Press reporting that MyPillow had been removed from stores due to his conspiracies, and a Washington Post photographer snapping a photo of him holding notes on "martial law" while visiting the White House.

On Sunday, he trained his sights onto reporters who were present or published stories about the first day of the event, including the News-Leader, the Springfield Daily Citizen and The Daily Beast. He displayed photos of a reporter and stories on the screen, and said the News-Leader reporter "should come up to the stage and we can pray for him."

Mike Lindell: MyPillow CEO's weekend-long elections 'summit' in Missouri kicks off

He also repeatedly urged attendees to share the event, which was being livestreamed on his app FrankSpeech, with family and friends.

"The only way this weekend fails is if nobody watches," Lindell said on multiple occasions.

It's unclear exactly how many people tuned in. FrankSpeech does not display viewer counts; a stream on YouTube alternative Rumble peaked around 1,500 viewers on Sunday morning.

Lindell's own company also maintained a prominent presence throughout. At one point he gave attendees a promo code to order MyPillows online, as well as MyCoffee, his new coffee brand. Samples of MyCoffee were available alongside breakfast.

Why Springfield? How many invited?

Repeated attempts to reach organizers of the event for information about how many people were invited, or why Springfield was chosen to host the conference, were unsuccessful.

One staffer made an informal estimate of "1,000 attendees per day." On Saturday, a reporter's rough count of attendance came to about 400 people. The crowd was predominantly white and skewed older, though some brought along young children and toddlers.

A representative for the University Plaza Hotel & Convention Center, which was listed as the event's venue in initial registration information, told the News-Leader on Friday they were not allowed to provide any information about the event.

Speakers from across U.S., including candidates and elected officials, speak

Much of Saturday's programming was dedicated to "State of the State" addresses, in which speakers representing all 50 states gave presentations about theories of election fraud within their home territory.

A majority of the speakers were volunteers with activist groups who have analyzed and scrutinized 2020 election results in their state, often putting pressure on county clerks and secretaries of states and urging for "forensic audits."

Others were candidates for or current holders of public office including Colorado state Rep. Ron Hanks, Kentucky state Sen. Adrienne Southworth, Washington state Rep. Brad Klippert, Arizona state House candidate Liz Harris and Massachusetts congressional candidate Caroline Colarusso.

Linda Rantz, an organizer with the "Missouri Canvassers" group that has investigated the election in Missouri, spoke on behalf of the Show-Me State (Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has said the 2020 election was secure in Missouri, and has pursued only two cases of election fraud). Rep. Ann Kelley, a Lamar Republican who has previously attended one of Lindell's events, was also present.

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: What happened at Mike Lindell's Moment of Truth Summit in Springfield