By Aaron Miller
President Obama switched on a crowd at a Hillary Clinton rally in defense of the free speech rights of a Donald Trump supporter who interrupted his speech today in Fayetteville, NC.
The interruption came ten minutes into the President’s speech in which Obama was discrediting Hilary Clinton’s character when a protester holding a Trump placard interjected.
“Hold up, hold up, hold up, hey listen! Listen!” Obama said as the crowd booed and filled the room with chants of ‘Hillary.’ Obam continued his defense of the Trump supporter, urging the crowd to listen to him, but they persisted in their chants of ”Hilary, Hilary”“Hey hey. Listen up. Hey everybody. Everybody hey. Hey. I told you to be focused and you’re not focused right now. Listen to what I’m saying.”
He was effectively saying ”hold up”, I am the president, listen to me”. ”I’m the main man here”He did not say those exact words but he might as well have said so.
The interesting drama lasted for several minutes whilst the president seemed to try in vain to regain the attention of the raucous crowd.
Free Speech
“Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Everybody sit down and be quiet for a second. Everybody sit down and be quiet for a second. Now listen up. I’m serious. Listen up,” Obama demanded. “You’ve got an older gentleman who is supporting his candidate. He’s not doing nothing. You don’t have to worry about him. This is what I mean about folks not being focused.” President Obama was interestingly respecting the man’s right to freedom of speech.
“First of all, we live in a country that respects free speech,” Obama said. “Second of all, it looks like maybe he might have served in our military and we ought to respect that., Obama continued. Third of all, he was elderly and we got to respect our elders, Obama said. And fourth of all, don’t boo. Vote!” The crowd erupted into an audible support for Hilary Clinton, somewhat ignoring Obama’s strenuous pleas for his attention.
Donald Trump Protester
President Obama showed class in the dignified way he laboured to gain the attention of the excited crowd, the vast majority of whom were supporters of Hilary Clinton. Obama was urging the crowd to respect the Donald Trump Protester’s right to free speech. Obama was also urging the crowd to respect the advancing age of the Donald Trump supporter whom he described as an elderly man.
The Donald Trump supporter was being escorted out when Obama’s intervention revived his hopes of being heard and exercising his free speech in favour of Donald Trump. This was cool 0f Obama and not something Donald Trump would have been capable of. Donald Trump does not have the smarts or class to have acted this way, but Trump still has a big chance in these elections.
“Don’t boo, vote! Come on,” he continued. “Now, I want you to pay attention, because if we don’t, if we lose focus, we could have problems. This is part of what’s happened here during this election season. We just get stirred up for all kinds of reasons that are unnecessary.”