Monday was not a good day to attend a Donald Trump rally, although some may say it’s always a questionable day to do so. As we’ve seen over the months, Trump rallys are prone to contain both protesters and violence, and these are not mutually exclusive entities. They often go together, and things got really ugly on Monday when Trump’s Secret Service detail allegedly thew down a reporter in a chokehold at a Radford, Virginia, rally.
Only hours later, Trump held a separate rally at Valdosta State University in Georgia. Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register reports how the Secret Service booted a group of about 30 black students before the rally began. These students all attended the university and were simply hanging out in the venue’s bleachers when they were escorted from the premises.
The black Valdosta U students tell me they were standing silently in the bleachers when Secret Service told them Trump wanted them removed.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 29, 2016
Jacobs spoke to Valdosta undergrad Brook Gladney, who says the group was informed “that Mr Trump did not want us there.” USA Today adds that the students were quite upset at their dismissal, particularly because Valdosta used to be a whites-only school (until 1963). One student had plenty to report about the incident:
“We didn’t plan to do anything,” said a tearful Tahjila Davis, a 19-year-old mass media major, who was among the Valdosta State University students who [were] removed. “They said, ‘This is Trump’s property; it’s a private event.’ But I paid my tuition to be here.”
Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks was quick to deny media accounts of this incident, saying the story was unequivocally untrue. However, Jacobs collected videos of the ejected students looking upset outside the venue. There’s also a clip that shows them being removed:
MORE VIDEO of the Valdosta students who were asked to leave Trump event before his speech began. pic.twitter.com/NQL05R1O57
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 1, 2016
Video from inside Trump rally of students led out from bleachers. Courtesy Kiebbler Carter, 22, who wasn't removed. pic.twitter.com/Ubmjq492DL
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 1, 2016
In addition, Huffington Post published even more footage of these black students being ejected for absolutely no reason, other than Donald Trump being Donald Trump.
(Via USA Today and Huffington Post)