|
From Staff Reports
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump packed his campaign rally with enthusiastic supporters Sept. 12 in downtown Asheville’s U.S. Cellular Center.
Trump spoke in front of a full-house crowd of about 7,000 people, according to a City of Asheville estimate. The event lasted about 40 minutes and included an appearance by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
During his speech, Trump repeatedly addressed Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton’s recent comments that about half of his supporters are “deplorable.” Indeed, Trump even brought a few attendees onto the stage to show that they are decent — perhaps even adorable — people.
In a surprise to some observers, Trump did not comment on Clinton’s recent health problems, despite in the past frequently suggesting that she is not healthy enough to serve as the president.
In an unusual twist, those entering and exiting the rally had to walk through a gauntlet of hundreds of people behind baricades near the front doors. Protesters were yelling, holding signs and screaming “bigot” and “racist” at Trump rally attendees who walked past them.
One female protester, with her nailpainted chemical violet and sharpened into long points, kept the middle finger on each hand raised in silent defiance, while another protester nearby shouted at a crowd filing into the arena, “Keep the bigot line moving.”
Regarding the subject of race, Trump addressed Clinton’s Sept. 9 statement that half of Trump’s supporters are “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it.”
At a New York fundraiser, the Democratic nominee for president called Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables.”
In response, Trump told the Asheville crowd, “While my opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable, I call you hard-working American patriots who want a better country.”
He added, “Every American is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect in our country. Whether you vote for me or whether you vote for someone else, I will be your champion in the White House.”
About a dozen Trump supporters joined him onstage to say they are not deplorables. They included a preacher, a working mother and former school principal. They did not identify themselves by name.
Throughout his remarks, Trump worked to create a connection between Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” and the working class, saying they were the ones who had been slighted by her remarks.
“She talks about people like they’re objects, not human beings. She said half of our supporters are irredeemable and not American,” he said.
“The great majority of this country now sees right through these lies and deceptions of a failed political establishment.”
Trump did not address the Clinton campaign’s Sept. 11 announcement that she has pneumonia.
Outside the arena, Courtney Davis, a freshmen who lives at UNC Asheville, told reporters that “I believe in equality, and I believe everyone should be able to live comfortably in our country.”
Expressing less equanimity was Diane Matsumoto, who reiterated Clinton’s disparagement of Trump supporters.
“We’re teachers, and it’s like looking at one big failed IQ test, and it makes me speechless — and in need of therapy,” she told reporters.
Isaac Herrin, a volunteer for the Trump campaign and a junior at Western Carolina University, told the news media that he thinks protesters are exaggerating.
“The word racist, it’s overused in this campaign,” he said as he escorted rally attendees through the barricades lined by protesters. “I’ve seen a lot of people who are very sensitive about (being called a racist), but overall, the people knew it was going to be here.”
As Herrin worked the barricades, he cried out, “Do not respond to the angry mob,” and his voice carried beyond the barricaded protesters and into Haywood Street.
While it appeared that everyone was yelling something, there was a rare lull — and Asheville Police Department officer Sarah McGhee quietly told a spectator, “Thank you for being peaceful.”
The U.S. Secret Service was in charge of the event, but Asheville Police Department officers working with the Secret Service were the main law enforcement presence.
Dozens of officers stood stoically among protesters, watching closely but obviously trying to avoid interfering unless needed.
Christina Hallingse, public information officer for the Asheville Police Department, said there had been no major incidents as of 6 p.m., when the rally inside the arena began.
Earlier in the afternoon, APD confiscated a firearm from someone outside the arena, Hallingse said.
Nathan West, chairman of the Buncombe County GOP, said he had witnessed one physical altercation between a protester and an attendee that was broken up by police.
Inside the rally, a protester walked around with a laundry basket on his head. Later, agents escorted several protesters out of the venue, although there were no apparent significant physical conflicts.
As Trump spoke, protesters shouted, “Your ties are made in China,” and “We’re running out of oil.” However, the candidate ignored their heckling.
Activists blame city for rally ‘gauntlet;’ plan to sue
By JOHN NORTH
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Two local conservative activitists recently said that they are looking for a lawyer to file a class-action lawsuit against the City of Asheville for its failure at controlling protesters outside a Sept. 12 rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.
Carl Mumpower, a former Asheville City Council member; and Chad Nesbitt, a former chairman of the Buncombe County Republican Party; called a news conference outside the U.S. Cellular Center on Sept. 19 to announce their concerns and plans to file a lawsuit — a week after the rally that drew a full house of about 7,000 people inside, with many others outside.
About a dozen people attended the news conference, at which Mumpower and Nesbitt each spoke, and two local ministers read complaints from people who attended the Trump rally and felt they were badly mistreated by rowdy protesters who formed a gauntlet through which they had to enter and exit the building.
Also featured were enlargements of photographs of badly behaving protesters at the event which were positioned around the lectern. Covering the news conference were reporters from the Asheville Citizen-Times, WLOS-TV and the Daily Planet.
Mumpower gave to reporters a pamphlet with pictures of several female protesters making obscene gestures.
When the AC-T’s Emily Patrick asked about Mumpower’s picture selection, which appeared to emphasize women, he replied that the behavior of the women protesters was “most egregious.”
Mumpower added, “It was the women who felt they were in a more permissive environment and could get away with it — and did. The girls got by with things the guys couldn’t have got by with, and that’s the way it is in our country. That’s not the story. The story is: Why that was allowed to happen?”
Regarding their complaint, Mumpower noted that as rally attendees passed through the gauntlet, they faced verbal abuse, signs were waved in their faces and they generally were treated rudely by the protesters, who were allowed to stand just outside the entrance doors, behind barricades.
The barricades were moved even closer to the entrance doors after the rally. The Daily Planet witnessed some protesters calling the attendees “bigot,” “racist” and screaming obsenities at them before and after the rally. Tensions were high, but Asheville police reported few arrests. Indeed, five people were arrested during and after the rally and arrest warrants were obtained for two others, who were charged with assault.
Mumpower, who did not attend the rally, said the lawsuit is intended to address what he termed “either a lousy plan, or a bad plan poorly implemented, or both.” He added that, although local law enforcement played a secondary role to the U.S. Secret Service at the Trump rally, the Asheville Police Department deserves to be blamed for the insufficient exit access — and for the misbehavior of the crowd.
“Our police are the only people here with arresting authority,” he said. “They were paralyzed, and they did not do their job protecting the public.”
Nesbitt, who attended the rally, said he had to wait in a single-file line to exit the rally because the protesters were crowded together, interfering with the normal departure of the crowd from the center. Besides the threat of violence, he also expressed concern that the situation could have been dangerous if a fire had erupted. (The city has said the event was approved and monitored by fire officials.)
Meanwhile, the city said the Trump campaign determined the placement of the barricades. The Trump campaign leased the U.S. Cellular Center, so it could have forbidden protests on a large portion of the plaza, but it did not, city spokesman Joey Robison told local news media. However, she added that she would find out who moved the barricades.
Mumpower and Nesbitt also slammed local news media coverage of the Trump rally for focusing on the “decoy issue” of assault charges as opposed to venue safety.
Meanwhile, a Sept. 29 statement emailed to the Daily Planet and others from Mumpower and Nesbitt was headlined, “Trump rally was a disgrace” and “Two largest media outlets continue to function as marketing arm for city government and liberal protesters.”
In another jab, the press release was referenced as “City authorities and everyone but Trump getting a pass.”
The statement begins by noting, “In the most recent effort by the Citizen-Times to grant the city a pass on their failure to uphold local ordinances during the Trump rally, city officials claimed that the ordinance on public cursing was not a viable law. This bit of silliness was preceded on Monday (Sept. 26) by a unilateral WLOS report, whereby city officials claimed that the misery at the end of the rally was caused by the failure of the Trump people to call the city’s people.
“May we share that we have better things to do than hold city officials accountable. Isn’t that the media’s job? We’ll keep trying, but we are hoping that our local daily paper and TV station will give it some thought, too,” the Mumpower-Nesbitt statement asserted.
After listing a variety of records requests that they are seeking to be released by the city, the duo concluded, “We appreciate the opportunity to keep raising the question(s). Wish the people who are paid to would, too.”
|
