So if you read my post last night you would see me trying to piece together what happened in real time.JUST NOW: Donald Trump was just rushed off stage during his Nevada campaign rally: https://t.co/7fTJ3N3MQN http://pic.twitter.com/Hm7CRdFDTU— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 6, 2016
At the time I was just sharing information as I learned it and in the end I think we got fairly close to the truth.
However today we have more detail, including an interview with the poor bastard who was accused of endangering "The Donald."
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| Austyn Crites, the man who scared Donald Trump off the stage. |
The man whose protest saw Donald Trump rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents has said the Republican nominee’s supporters turned on him when he held up a sign reading: “Republicans against Trump”.
The man, who identified himself as Austyn Crites from Reno, told the Guardian he was holding the sign at a rally when Trump supporters wrestled him to the ground.
The 33-year-old – who says he has been a registered Republican for about six years – said he was kicked, punched and choked, and feared for his life when the crowd turned on him at the gathering in Reno, Nevada.
Crites cited Trump’s treatment of Mexicans, Muslims and women as the reason he decided to protest again Trump, who he described as “a textbook version of a dictator and a fascist”.
Okay now that is who Crites is, he is a Republican who is ashamed of the man that his party chose to represent them in the presidential election.
But here's the part that the media is not reporting accurately, Donald Trump himself pointed this guy out and incited the crowd to attack him.
Just skip all of the usual Trump bullshit and go to the 34:45 mark on the video.
It is at that point where Trump shades his eyes and says "Oh we have one of those guys from the Hillary Clinton campaign."
He then asks Crites how much he is being paid, and then instructs the crowd to "take him out."
This results in a fight between audience members and Crites, and in less than a minute Trump is hurried off stage by the Secret Service.
Here is what Crites described happened after Trump sicked the crowd on him:
The Guardian found a bruised and shocked-looking Crites outside the auditorium. He said he was shaken and had pain in the back, but was otherwise uninjured.
“I had a sign that said ‘Republicans against Trump’. It is a sign that you can just print off online.”
Initially, there was the expected reaction of people around him booing, he said. “And then all of a sudden people next to me are starting to get violent; they’re grabbing at my arm, trying to rip the sign out of my hand,” he said.
He said he could not be sure but “it looked like” Trump was pointing at him, and may have been “instigating something”. Either way, the crowd piled on him, he said, kicking, punching, holding him on the ground and grabbing his testicles.
He said he was a wrestler in his youth and used his training to turn his head to the side to maintain an airway open as he was being choked by one man who had him in a headlock. “But there were people wrenching on my neck they could have strangled me to death,” he added.
Crites said when he was on the ground he heard someone yell “something about a gun” and he kept telling those on top of him that he had merely been holding a sign.
So to be clear Crites was unarmed, and only exercising his First Amendment rights.
It is important to note that EVERYTHING that happened here was the direct result of Donald Trump overreacting to a protester.
The man DID NOT pose a threat, and yet Trump singled him out, instructed the crowd to attack him, and that resulted in somebody yelling about a gun, and Trump diving off of the stage in fear for his life.
(Okay to be fair the Secret Service ushered him off stage, but still the ONLY reason they felt that was necessary is because Trump instigated a fight in the audience.)
Oddly enough Trump's supporters are actually viewing this event as a net positive for their candiate.
For instance this was posted on Sarah Palin's Facebook page today:
Of course it's easy to appear calm when you know that you are exaggerating something for effect and that there is in no real danger.
The take away for me is that this is proof that the giant orange POS starts conflicts and then runs away when there is any hint that he himself might be in harm's way.
And THIS is the guy who is trying to get elected to be America's Commander-in-Chief.
Not on my watch.
Source http://ift.tt/2fsV3xu
