A little over one hundred protesters – mostly left wing “snowflakes” in their twenties – gathered in front of the television satellite trucks in front of the Nashville Municipal Auditorium on Wednesday as an estimated 10,000 supporters heard from President Trump inside.
“There were a few protesters who were clearly trying to get the attention of the media, and the media was obliging them with more attention than their numbers deserved, ” one Trump supporter who was outside the Nashville Municipal Auditorium just before the event started told the The Tennessee Star.
The Trump supporter said all the energy of the day was with the large pro-Trump crowd, not the few anti-Trump protesters.
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“In terms of crowd enthusiasm, the Trump rally was bigger than anything I’ve ever seen in Nashville,” he said.
“This was a huge crowd that came out to support President Trump,” another person who attended the event said. Â “Nashville saw nothing like it on the various occasions when President Obama came to town – and this is a Democrat-majority city. Supporters of President Trump vastly outnumbered the protesters. In a Democrat city.”
But despite their best efforts, the protesters were largely ignored by the pro-Trump crowd.
The local media coverage of the protesters, on the other hand, made a different editorial decision.
Straining credulity in the name of “balance,” the media outlets on the scene seemed to be interested in the protesters’ anti-Trump message, which melted in the face of the hugely enthusiastic wave of support for the president.
Another Trump supporter who was able to make it in just before the doors closed told The Star that as many as 5,000 Trump supporters were turned away from the event, even though the start was delayed by half an hour to accommodate the security clearance bottleneck.
One Trump supporter – B.L. – didn’t get in, but stayed outside the venue for the duration of the rally to show her support. “For the last 45 minutes to an hour we knew we would not get inside and so did those around us, but all stayed in support of the President and his agenda.”
“In those hours,” she said, “we probably saw only six to eight protesters until we actually got to the entrance. Even there, we saw fewer than 50.”
It was a whole different story when she caught the coverage of the event on the evening news, however.
“When I got home and tried to catch the TV coverage, two channels spent as much or more time focused on the protesters than on the supporters of President Trump who stayed in line chatting with one another.”
B.L. said that she and her friends enjoyed the fellowship of their like-minded rally goers. “We were pleased to be there with a very large congenial group of folks – not marching in the streets, not blocking streets, not wearing offensive shirts and not yelling out offensive language.
“I looked at our line several times and had to smile – there were all ages, all races, some athletes, some in wheel chairs or using canes, some expensively dresses most in denim, but all were polite to one another. It was an optimistic gathering – except I didn’t see that portrayed in the media.”
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Very well said Angie. I didn’t hear many complaints either and those I heard were said jokingly. Nashville has been known for decades and decades as a welcoming, friendly, helpful, pleasant, safe community to visit. Those of us who were raised here have been proud of that portrayal and its emphasis on hospitality. Most of us were raised in families that taught the invaluable significance of respect and hospitality extended to all. These are character traits our city has held in high esteem across almost all demographics. In my opinion, our current mayor doesn’t display a very high regard for these traits and certainly seems to extend them selectively if at all. I hope President Trump and other visitors to Nashville recognize she is not representative of the residents. Given our history, the absence of these traits during the President’s visit was GLARING. People, both residents and visitiors, were made to stand outside on a cold windy day, rather than making an effort to start processing earlier to get folks in out of the cold. The process was so inefficient that many seats remained empty while people of all ages stood in the cold. Again, in my opinion, this inefficiency in a city that is very accustomed to dealing with large crowds was so pervasive and glaring that it could not have been unintentional and, in my memory, may be a first. Trying to blame the inefficiency on safety concerns simply falls short of credibility – especially given Nashville’s long history of handling multiple venues that draw large crowds. If the media people had been more inclined to cover the whole story they could have walked that line all day and interviewed some articulate and fascinating people. However, if this was an intentional slight, the people rose to the occassion and took the high ground as they stood in line respectful of those around them (regardless of which basketball team they were pulling for), welcoming those who were from out of town or out of state, sharing stories and bottles of water, talking about family, reaching to help those who stumbled because feet had gotten so cold, and finally holding up phones so that those shivering around them could all watch the President speak. (Some did have to leave for health reason and for the sake to young children.) These were fun, interesting, hardy, respectful people and most didn’t start walking away until the President finished his remarks. That is rude – ya know!
I was there, it was freezing cold, we didn’t complain. We were happy to come out and make sure our President knew we were behind him. We saw only a few snowflakes protesting, one inebriated woman weaving around yelling, a couple of girls with a sign for Planned Parenthood, 2 people hanging over a roof telling us how good their potato chips were…I was shocked as well, to see how the media twisted the facts. Seeing how the “FAKE NEWS” really is done, I was just shocked and disgusted. We were so happy to see the outpouring of love for our President and hopefully the next Nashville election Process will reflect our values and political stance so that when he comes back, we will be much more organized in displaying the hospitality that our city was once known for. This was a missed opportunity for the food truck’s business to make a lot of money…for street musicians to be heard, for there to have been trashcan offered along the over mile long lines waiting to see him. I was just shocked at the passive aggressive resistance to his visit. The city missed it’s opportunity to shine, but our citizens shined enough for tbem. No cars burning, no obscene signage, no violence…just a HUGE amount of people out in the freezing cold, showing the world the news really is fake, and they are painting a very false narrative.
“More than 2,500 Protest Trump” was a headline for a Tennessean article today.
Hummm. Who should I believe, the leftist fake news “chain gang” story in the Tennessean or Christina Botteri’s article in the Tennessee Star?
I was at the Trump rally at Legislative Plaza a beautiful Saturday in early March. I saw first hand the protest by Antifa’s crew of 25 or so who were joined by maybe 30 or so LGBT and fake feminists later in the day.
OK, I choose Christiana’s.