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| © AP Photo/Andrew Harnik |
The sight of the students, who were visibly upset, being led outside by law enforcement officials created a stir at a university that was a whites-only campus until 1963.
“We didn’t plan to do anything,” said a tearful Tahjila Davis, a 19-year-old mass media major, who was among the Valdosta State University students who was removed. “They said, 'This is Trump’s property; it’s a private event.' But I paid my tuition to be here.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks in an email late Monday night denied that the students were shown the door “at the request of the candidate” or the campaign.
"There is no truth to this whatsoever," Hicks said, adding that "the campaign had no knowledge of this incident.”
It’s unclear whose idea it was to remove the students. The incident was recorded on video by several rallygoers. (Some of the footage can be found here, here and here.)
Trump has been regularly heckled by protesters at his campaign rallies, but tensions have increased after he came under fire on Sunday for not immediately condemning support from a prominent white supremacist.
Brooke Gladney, a 22-year-old marketing and business management major at Valosta State, said the group of students, many of whom were wearing all black, were ushered out en masse by officials who told them it was a private event. “The only reason we were given was that Mr. Trump did not want us there,” Gladney said.
Several agencies provided security at the Valdosta rally – the Secret Service, Valdosta police, the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and others.
Robert Hobak, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said agents were reportedly in the area during the incident, but they would have been simply monitoring. Escorting protesters out of rallies is “not our function,” he said. It’s up to the host committee, campaign staff and local law enforcement to handle, he said.
“This happens sometimes that people will confuse us with other law enforcement,” Hobak said Tuesday morning.
Earlier Monday, some black students at another Trump campaign rally, on the campus of Radford University in Virginia, were led out by Secret Service after they began chanting: “No more hate! No more hate! Let's be equal, let's be great!"
Trump's two campus rallies took place just one day before high-stakes Super Tuesday, when 11 states hold GOP contests, including a collection of southern states. Trump is poised to lock down enough delegates to give him a sizable – and possibly insurmountable – lead over his GOP rivals.
During his remarks in Valdosta, Trump said he’s leading a movement. “I’m just a messenger,” he said.
Later, Trump said his whole life has been about making money, but "now I’m going to be greedy for the United States,” as the audience roared. “I’m going to take, take, take and we’re going to become rich again.”
Karen Clendenin, 58, a victims advocate in the local district attorney’s office, said she was very impressed and that she’ll vote for Trump on Tuesday in Georgia's primary. Clendenin said she wore her “Trump” T-shirt Monday even though she was “a little embarrassed.”
“So many people at work say, ‘Oh, no, we can’t have him. He’s not sensitive enough,’” she said. “But with the condition our country is in today, we’ve got to have somebody who’s not afraid.”
The students who were asked to leave quietly followed Secret Service agents outside, but then argued with Valdosta police officers who politely, but firmly, told them they needed to leave the grounds of the Trump event, held at the school’s PE complex.
Davis rested her forehead on the shoulder of her friend Leah Sheppard, a 20-year-old criminal justice major, and cried.
“I don’t understand why they would do something like that,” Davis said. “I have not experienced any racism on this campus until now.”
Several other Valdosta students scattered in smaller groups throughout the audience inside the rally said before Trump's speech that they intended to sit in silent protest, without causing any disruption. They followed through on that. Only one person, who was white, was ejected for protesting during Trump's remarks.
After a barrage of criticism for failing to denounce support from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke during a CNN interview broadcast Sunday, Trump Monday morning said the problem was that he had difficulty hearing Tapper’s question because of the “very bad earpiece” CNN had given him.
“I think he’s ignorant,” said Clinesha Sims, an 18-year-old biology major who wasn’t among the students escorted out by security. Sims said she intended to stay seated throughout Trump’s speech.
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