According to various media accounts, President Trump‘s rally today in El Paso, Texas this Monday was quite a barnstormer. One guy was so overcome with patriotism that he felt it necessary to assault a member of the press.
Just as Democrats and Republicans reached a deal on Capitol Hill to keep the government open past Friday’s deadline, Trump took the podium in El Paso to rail against creeping “socialism” and Beto O’Rourke, among other things.
Trump was back to one of his familiar themes: his perception of crowd size — and he’s still getting the numbers wrong.
“They will say Beto O’Rourke – that’s his last name, right, O’Rourke? – had a wonderful rally of about 15 people,” he said.
As The Hill points out, O’Rourke’s rally had anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people, but Trump’s lying about the numbers took a back seat to the tension growing in the room that later ended up unleashing itself on BBC news cameraman Rob Skeans.
As the speech went on, Trump switch the subject to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow progressive Democrats, warning about their “policies of taking away your car, taking away your airplane flights, of ‘let’s hop a train to California.”
Then came the “lock her up” chants.
In a Twitter post later that night, BBC Washington News Editor Eleanor Montage shared a video showing a man in a MAGA hat assault Skeans, whose camera was focused on Trump at the podium before it was knocked from his grip.
“USA! USA!,” a voice off camera can be heard yelling.
As Kean stabilized his camera, a man in a red MAGA hat could be seen being dragged away by another red-capped fellow.
“F— you!,” the man yells. “F— the media!”
“Just attended my first [Donald Trump] rally where my colleague BBC cameraman Rob Skeans was attacked by a Trump supporter,” Montage wrote. “The crowd had been whipped up into a frenzy against the media by Trump and other speakers all night.”
Just attended my first @realDonaldTrump rally where my colleague BBC cameraman Rob Skeans was attacked by a Trump supporter. The crowd had been whipped up into a frenzy against the media by Trump and other speakers all night #TrumpElPaso pic.twitter.com/Oiw8osPms3
— Eleanor Montague (@EleanorMontague) February 12, 2019
It was a disturbing scene and likely a preview of things to come as the wedges drive even deeper for the 2020 campaign kick off.
Featured image via screen grab
