Turning Point Host Interrupts Obama During Rally for Arizona Democrats: ‘Katie Hobbs Discriminates Against Black People’

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - NOVEMBER 02: Former U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a c
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Nick Gilbertson

Turning Point USA (TPUSA) investigative reporter and host Drew Hernandez interrupted former President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in Arizona Wednesday to ask why he supports Democrat gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs, who “discriminates against black people.”

Obama was in Phoenix Wednesday to stump for Hobbs in her race against Republican Kari Lake and for Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who is neck and neck with GOP challenger Blake Masters. The former president was arguing that the economy is “very good for folks at the very top, but not always so good for ordinary people” when Hernandez interjected.

“Like you, Obama!” he said. “Why do you support Katie Hobbs? Katie Hobbs discriminates against black people. Katie Hobbs discriminates [inaudible].”

“You know, you have to be polite and civil when people are talking – when other people are talking – and then you get a chance to talk,” responded the president. “Set up your own rally. A lot of people worked hard for this. C’mon, man.”

A man in a blue shirt seized Hernandez, who hosts the TPUSA show Frontlines, and began to escort him out of the building. Suddenly, two younger men in blue shirts rushed towards him and began screaming inaudibly in close proximity to his face. Through it all, Hernandez continued to shout that “Katie Hobbs discriminates against black people!”

Hernandez seemed to be referring to Talonya Adams, a black woman who worked for Hobbs in the State Senate and sued the legislative body for racial and sexual discrimination. As Breitbart News reported:

Back in 2015, Talonya Adams, who worked for then-Arizona Senate minority leader Hobbs, discovered her white and male colleagues were being paid more than she. After this discovery, Adams asked to be paid as much as her fellow staffers.

Adams took an already approved family leave shortly after asking for a raise, but she would not return to her position as an Arizona Senate policy adviser. Adams was informed that the Senate would terminate her employment while she was on leave.

As a result of her termination, Adams sued Hobbs and the Arizona Senate, alleging she was fired in retaliation for highlighting her discriminatory pay. After Adams’ lawsuit, two separate federal juries ruled in her favor and awarded her $2.75 million in damages.

Adams holds Hobbs responsible for her firing. Hobbs’s Republican opponent, Kari Lake, dubbed her a “twice-convicted racist” and slammed the Democrat in a recent interview with Breitbart News.

“I don’t like to divide people by race and class and sex and all of that, but let’s just have some parity and equality, and if you’re working a long, full day doing the same job as somebody else, you should be paid the same,” Lake said. “That is a huge disparity in what she was paying a woman of color versus a man. There’s no other explanation besides racism, and two juries unanimously decided that.”

“This is the party, the Democrats, who’ve been calling Republicans racist for years, and they truly are the party of racism,” Lake told Breitbart News in the interview. “They’re the party that started the KKK; they’re the party that opposed the civil rights movement. They are truly the party of racism in America, and they’ve tried to change history and confuse our young people. The fact of the matter is the Democrats are the party of racists.”

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