Arizona reporter Cameron Ridle was caught on a hot mic in a Facebook live video as he walked to the scene of a Pro-Trump rally outside Perry High School in Gilbert, Arizona — whose principal and staff allegedly punished students for bringing MAGA gear to school — discussing with another man the possibility of Trump supporters calling him the “N-word.”
Ridle and another individual approached the Trump supporters last week to cover a story for AZFamily about a protest taking place in front of Perry High School after the school had reportedly punished students for wearing “MAGA” clothing and bringing a MAGA flag to school for “USA Day.”
Trump supporters and other concerned members of the local community gathered in front of the high school to protest the treatment of the conservative students, whose “political signage” caused “concern for student safety,” according to the school’s principal.
Ridle, who is also a reporter for 3TV’s Good Morning Arizona and CBS 5 This Morning according to AZFamily, can be heard talking and laughing with another man as they approached the protest, likely unaware that a Facebook live video had already begun recording, capturing the audio from part of their conversation.
The video appears to have since been removed from AZFamily’s Facebook page, but the hot mic portion of the video was copied and later uploaded to social media.
.@CameronRidle of @azfamily laughs about approaching Conservative parents protesting Perry HS suspending students over MAGA clothing. Says, "Lets say I walk right down the sidewalk next to them, maybe they'll call me a N*****."
Very balanced reporting.
Credit: @Meeeech_L pic.twitter.com/6r9uYKbZxl— Sean Campbell (@CampbellVideos) March 7, 2019
“Let’s say I walk right down the sidewalk next to them — maybe they’ll call me a n*gger,” Ridle can be heard saying to another man in the video, at which point, the two men begin laughing.
“You’ll come pretty close,” responded the other individual.
“Yeah, ‘you should go back to school,’ oh boy, that’s an old one,” said Ridle, as the two men continued to laugh, “I think you need to update your material.”
“First thing I decided to do when I got out of jail this morning was come down here,” said the other man, which elicited more laughter among the two individuals.
“Sending this back to all our boys back in county,” added Ridle.
A spokesperson for AZFamily told Breitbart News, “At Arizona’s Family our expectation is that all employees will treat others with respect. We are aware of the situation and are conducting an investigation.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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