Donald Trump Repeatedly Interrupted During Rally, Supporters Boo And Attack Protesters
Donald Trump was repeatedly interrupted during his speech at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday. WNCN had reported on Thursday that protesters were preparing to attend the rally because they disagreed with the Republican candidate’s policies. David Salazar, one of the people who was planning to demonstrate at the rally, said on Thursday, “None of us are what he says.”
“We are good-working, hard-working families that pay taxes every day. So we need to let him know that we don’t stand for that.”
That is just what they did — protesters planned the protest by placing demonstrators in strategic places in different locations all over the 7,000-capacity stadium in Raleigh and repeatedly usurped Trump. Trump was first interrupted just minutes after he started his speech. Trump dismissed the protester by saying it was just one person and that the “dishonest media” will make a headline out of that one person. However, it became clear that more than one person was there to protest and Trump said “they’ve got strategy.” Trump was repeatedly interrupted at least ten times during the speech which prompted him to cut the speech short, reported CNN. CNN also said that this was Trump’s “most staged, disruptive protest to date.”
About 25 people were escorted from the rally, several of them were dressed in black clothes with “Black Lives Matter” logos. No one was arrested. One protester tweeted a video of his protest and his subsequent eviction from the rally. About halfway through the video, he repeatedly shouts a chant which supporters clearly didn’t like. In the video, Trump supporters quickly started booing the protester and physically pushing him back, and then security took him outside all while the camera is still recording.
“No Trump, No KKK! No Fascist USA!”
I disrupted Donald Trump's NC rally tonight and was roughed up by his supporters before being ejected. Video here: https://t.co/AaEw114NMU
— Todd Zimmer (@neutralized) December 5, 2015
Another protester also tweeted that he was roughed up by Trump supporters as well. Apparently, the crowd of Trump supporters took offense to the repeated interruptions by protesters and took matters into their own hands. The protesters, however, showed no violence, only voicing their protest to Trump’s policies and candidacy.
Forcibly removed from #trump rally. Trump supporters kicked me, grabbed my neck, pushed me, and more all while security jacks me up. Awful
— Romain Stanley (@MisterMainTain) December 5, 2015
That protester, Romain Stanley, was interviewed by My Fox 8 news and said that the protesters had planned the event a week before the rally. Stanley told the news station that the group had planned to span the interruptions into five-minute increments, which was accomplished by the group. “Exactly what we planned is exactly what we got, a lot of news organizations are talking about the protests, about it being the largest to date,” Stanley said. Stanley is an Air Force veteran and said that when Trump started talking about Syrian refugees and building a wall, that is when he chose the moment to chant “Trump’s a coward.” That was when supporters started pushing him and kicking him.
Trump has repeatedly drawn protests for his policies on immigrants, racist remarks, and his demeaning and derogatory opinions of others in the presidential race. Trump was also recently videotaped apparently mocking a disabled reporter, but Trump denies that he was making fun of the reporter. Trump was visibly irritated by being interrupted repeatedly at the rally but kept talking until he had to cut the speech short. Protesters felt that they had accomplished what they went to the rally to do and tweeted about their victory. In addition to the protesters inside the arena, there was a crowd of protesters outside as well, as shown in this Facebook post.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153773936948874&set=a.10150284927868874.352098.760283873&type=3
[Lead Photo Credit: AP Photo/Ted Richardson]
