Granite State News Collaborative
Screenshot of the Twitter clip posted by Phillip Nieto. Watch the full video here
After the fireworks following President Donald Trump’s address to close out the Republican National Convention, Chris Ager started to walk back to his Washington, D.C. hotel along streets erupting with protesters.
Ager, the Republican National Committeeman representing New Hampshire, walked with his jacket draped over his left arm and carried a pair of red heels belonging to the woman to his right. A crowd followed the pair in an exchange that was caught on video and viewed on social more than 3 million times by Friday afternoon.
“Watch your language,” Ager says to one of the masked protesters, who appeared to be a young woman. The protester shouts back with a tirade of profanity.
Officially, the crowds had gathered outside the White House for a “noise demonstration and dance party” in an attempt to drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.
As guests left the White House grounds, clashes began, including one involving U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Heated scenes like the ones in the video – and others from cities across America – are likely to continue as the nation gets closer to Nov. 3, University of New Hampshire Political Science Professor Dante Scala said.
“I do think the temperature, the public’s temperature, will only rise as we get closer to Election Day,” Scala said.
Ager declined to be interviewed for this story. When contacted on his cell phone Friday, he hung up, and then texted he couldn’t talk at the moment. Ager did not respond to subsequent texts and phone calls.
Ager was expected to be attending President Donald Trump’s appearance in Londonderry on Friday night.
In the video making the rounds on social media, a group of masked protesters follow Ager and the woman back to their hotel and address him by name.
“Mr. Ager, how do you feel about the killing of Black men in America,” a female protester asks.
“Answer the f’ing question!” she shouts.
Ager largely does not respond, but continues walking. At one point Ager is unable to get into the hotel through the entrance and puts up his arm as the masked woman gets closer to the woman with Ager. The masked woman then begins repeatedly chanting “Put your hands on me again and I’ll (expletive) you up,” while getting closer to Ager as though trying to provoke a reaction.
Ager and his companion eventually get into the hotel through a parking garage entrance all while being followed by the group.
Around the same time as Ager’s walk, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was swarmed by protestors as he was leaving the White House. Paul had police officers around him to get through the crowd and at one point a police officer shoved at the crowd with a bicycle he was using for a shield. Protestors shoved back at the police officer. Paul later told Fox News he feared for his life.
“I truly believe this with every fiber of my being, had they gotten at us they would have gotten us to the ground. We might not have been killed, might just have been injured by being kicked in the head, or kicked in the stomach until we were senseless,” he told Fox News.
Thursday night’s protest took place amid national unrest over police shootings of Black men and women. The latest shooting was in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Jacob Blake was shot several times in the back by a police officer. Blake survived and is reportedly paralyzed. The ensuing protests in Kenosha took a more violent turn when 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse shot three protestors with an assault rifle, killing two of them. Rittenhouse has since been criminally charged in the shootings.
Scala said as the calendar gets closer to Nov. 3, the opportunity for more confrontations becomes greater. At the very least, people should be prepared for the types of protesters seen in the Ager and Rand videos, regardless of politics.
“We should be prepared for those sorts of confrontations,” Scala said.
Scala said partisans from the left and right have been more active. He pointed to the Blacks Lives Matter protest in Manchester earlier this year in which Scott Kimball, 43, and his son Mark Kimball, 19, were arrested for allegedly brandishing a gun during a confrontation with the protestors. The Kimballs were seen driving with a Trump campaign sign.
“There’s always the potential for confrontation between now and Election Day. And who knows beyond that, what sort of public events are there going to be,” Scala said.
Democrats said they have faced the same kind of tactics from the right.
“Of course Democrats agree that this is not how anyone should be treated. We know this more than anyone because our candidates have been dogged the same way by New Hampshire Republicans’ staff for years – one of whom was even arrested for this type of behavior,” said Holly Shulman, spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. “I also find it very disturbing how quickly the Republican Party condemned these protesters when the NH GOP, Chris Sununu, and Chris Ager still continue to remain completely silent for months after two gunmen shouted: ‘Trump! Trump!’ and threatened peaceful protesters in Manchester. This is clearly about politics for the New Hampshire Republican Party and nothing else.”
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