One of Donald Trump’s newest conspiracy theories accuses the Clinton campaign of paying protestors to disrupt his March rally in Chicago. Trump brought up this situation during the third presidential debate, but his words are being debunked by those who were there. During the rally, anti-Trump protestors bombarded a scheduled speech that saw five people get arrested and its own Wikipedia page be created. And the arrests and injuries sustained to some of the attendees caused The Donald to cancel his appearance. During the debate, Trump claimed the violence was incited by paid Clinton shills:
“I was wondering what happened with my rally in Chicago and other rallies where we had such violence. She’s the one, and Obama, that caused the violence. They hired people, they paid them $1,500, and they’re on tape saying, be violent, cause fights, do bad things. When I saw what they did, which is a criminal act by the way, where they’re telling people to go out and start fist-fights and start violence.”
The footage Trump that claims he saw belongs to the conservative group Project Veritas Action, who purportedly recorded Democratic operatives talking about plans for the rally. But as Politifact points out, it is not known when the videos were recorded, and they and seemed to be edited to skew contexts. Some of the protestors who were present on March 11 debunked the theory, joking they have yet to receive their paychecks:
https://twitter.com/Queen_C_xoxo/status/788926312668884992
Trump, Chicago didn't need to be paid to express our dislike for you. We just ain't got none!
— Hazels Dream (@Mikellangelo_) October 20, 2016
Months ago, a couple hundred protestors ran Trump out of Chicago. If he couldn't handle them, how the hell can he handle ISIS? #Debate
— Kinfolk Kollective (@knflkkollective) October 20, 2016
https://twitter.com/brazenqueer/status/788923062586580992
I was supposed to get paid for showing up to protest #Trump's #Chicago rally? #DebateNight. Must not have bc it wasn't violent.
— Des (@Wife_alert) October 20, 2016
https://twitter.com/laurenmialki/status/788921435871932416
Progressive group Moveon.org confirmed that it had helped protestors make signs for the event, but did not compensate people for their time there. Trump’s camp has not produced any other evidence supporting their claims, except the video by Project Veritas Action, which itself has a few holes in it.
(Via Dnainfo Chicago, Politifact & CNN)
