A handful of protesters just interrupted POTUS speech at a shale conference.
Pool couldn’t clearly hear what they were chanting. About a half-dozen people were spotted being escorted out of a general admission section of the conference after about a three-minute disruption.
POTUS initially tried to ignore the protestors. “Don’t pay attention, don’t pay attention” he said. “Don’t hurt them, don’t hurt them, please,” he quickly added. “They don’t know they’re dealing with very tough people.”
“Go home to mom,” he said as the protestors were leaving.
POTUS opened a domestic energy speech at a shale conference in Pittsburgh by criticising the “do-nothing Democrats” as “nasty people” and again dismissing the House impeachment investigation as a witch hunt. “They can’t beat us at the ballot box,” he said.
“I have witch hunts every week,” POTUS said. “I say, ‘What’s the witch hunt this week?'”
He highlighted his 2016 campaign victories in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. He told the crowd that if Democrats win, “You won’t have money to pay for a ticket to his place.”
The blatant politicking highlighted the two separate crowds at the speech: the shale conference attendees at the front of the room who largely sat silent through the campaign-style speech, and the roughly 1,000 supporters in a general admission section at the back of the room who erupted in loud cheers for the president.
POTUS also recognized several Cabinet members in the audience, including Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry. POTUS said Perry was “nasty” and “tough” during the 2016 primary but then turned out to be very nice “when he decided it was time to do something else.”
POTUS made some positive remarks about the Pittsburgh sports scene after taking the stage, but the pool just somehow just did not manage to jot down those remarks. But someone should definitely fact check it.