Left-wing rioters attacked supporters of President Donald Trump leaving a rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Thursday evening — assaulting them in groups, setting fire to pro-Trump hats, and attacking the police.
Riot police stood by as members of Antifa were seen dragging steel fences away from the Target Center. They were filmed by Elijah Schaffer, a correspondent for The Blaze, a conservative news site — who was maced as he filmed.
Trump supporters are literally fleeing the event after it ended as protestors are waiting around attacking attendees as they leave the arena
It is not safe in Minneapolis any longer for Trump supporters. Please stay away from the vicinity and do not come out with branded gear pic.twitter.com/BLsJbtct0k
— Elijah Schaffer (@ElijahSchaffer) October 11, 2019
The situation outside the Trump rally in Minnesota is quickly deteriorating
Left wing protestors are destroying barricades
A protestor can be seen waving the Chinese flag in front of riot police. While people in Hong Kong wave American flags for freedom, we wave Chinese flags pic.twitter.com/XVl551kyqZ
— Elijah Schaffer (@ElijahSchaffer) October 11, 2019
Anti Trump protestors in Minnesota stole about 40 hats off the heads of Trump supporters & then lit them on fire 🔥 at the Trump Rally
They then left the ashes as a vigil against fascism, leaving a f*ck Trump sign on the top of the pile
This is tolerance. This is the left pic.twitter.com/jFhVNXrgId
— Elijah Schaffer (@ElijahSchaffer) October 11, 2019
My producer and I were bear maced in the face while reporting on the quickly dilapidating situation outside the Minnesota Trump rally
Arrests have been made. Antifa is present. Violence is common place at this point. Typical end of the night anarchy pic.twitter.com/ujnDNQIVtf
— Elijah Schaffer (@ElijahSchaffer) October 11, 2019
Local Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporter Liz Sawyer noted there were several hundred rioters, and that some were singling out Trump supporters and surrounding them in groups before attacking them. Some also attacked police:
Large groups continue encircling one or two Trump supporters at a time. One guy just had debris thrown at him and got slapped in the face. A videographer stood up for him and helped lead him out if the circle pic.twitter.com/OjfVc34JFJ
— Liz Sawyer (@ByLizSawyer) October 11, 2019
Still several hundred protesters spread out between two groups on 1st Av. Some keep chasing trump supporters away, “saying we don’t want you here.”
Others have turned their attention to police.— Liz Sawyer (@ByLizSawyer) October 11, 2019
Protesters completely surrounded a group of Trump supporters, at least one of whom was wearing a body camera on his chest. Some attempted to engage the group in a dialogue for several minutes, before chasing away pic.twitter.com/9jL60oRXlO
— Liz Sawyer (@ByLizSawyer) October 11, 2019
The scene was reminiscent of the riot outside a convention center in San Jose in June 2016, when anti-Trump rioters attacked Trump supporters leaving the venue in full view of the media — and Mayor Sam Liccardo blamed Trump.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey proclaimed Thursday as “Love Trumps Hate Day” in the city, in solidarity with protests against Trump. Evidently, however, some of those among the “protesters” felt “hate” trumped “love.”
In one instance, a bystander who was not a Trump supporter reported being attacked by the anti-Trump mob:
In this riot of anti-trump. I was just trying to get through with my brother, and I’ve never been called a racist so many times let alone ever. I’ve never been shoved for just walking through for thinking I was a trump supporter. I don’t have opinions on trump but this was wack pic.twitter.com/pGRxFSVRxa
— Kali Finch (@KaliFinch1) October 11, 2019
The Target Center had attempted to charge the Trump campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars for additional security. The rally itself — with a capacity crowd inside and tens of thousands outside — passed without serious incident, but local police seemed unprepared for the violence by anti-Trump rioters after the event was over.
This story is developing.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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