An August 2016 video of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) being escorted out of then-candidate Donald Trump's speech has resurfaced on social media. The video shows security guards removing Tlaib from the speech after interrupting the Republican nominee.
"You guys are crazy!" Tlaib yells at people in the audience.
It turns out Tlaib penned an opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press after the disruption took place to explain her actions.
According to Tlaib, she felt compelled to disrupt Trump because of his "hate-filled rhetoric and tactics." She and 12 other women made a commotion during Trump's speech to the Detroit Economic Club in August 2016.
I have heard critics calling it unbecoming of a former state legislator. Well, I believe it is unbecoming of any American to not stand up to Trump’s hate-filled rhetoric and tactics. Growing up the daughter of Palestinian immigrants in Detroit, I was taught about how Walter Reuther, Coleman Young, Rosa Parks, Viola Liuzzo and other great Detroiters risked their lives for justice. I still remember at the age of 12, learning that segregation had been permitted only a couple of decades before I was born and that a woman’s right to vote was not even a century old. But it was great Americans who stood up, some dying for the cause, to make our country better.
Courteous behavior can’t be reserved for someone who labels hardworking Mexican immigrants who have come to pursue the American Dream as “rapists.” Social niceties are not in order for men who would turn away refugees fleeing for their lives based on their faith to have them suffer in camps. And complacency is not warranted for a presidential candidate who denigrates a mother and father who have lost their child in the ultimate sacrifice of military service.
I can’t describe the fear that gripped me when I rose in front of nearly 2,000 professionals at this tony, corporate setting. I watched as Trump supporters taunted the women who stood before me as they were aggressively and briskly led to the exits. I froze, feeling the anger around me that would make anyone tremble. Yet, I could only think of the unwavering love for my two sons to find the courage to do my own part.
...
I told Trump that “our children deserve better” and I asked him to provide a better example to our kids. I implored him to read the U.S. Constitution. And then I was grabbed by several security personnel who physically moved me to the exit while I continued to express my concerns.
Tlaib said Trump is responsible for creating "an atmosphere wherein my sons are questioning their place and identity as Arab Americans and Muslims." She felt compelled to stand up to Trump as a way of defending her sons.
“The Squad” is nuts. And this is just one example. pic.twitter.com/8h5Hb9qcP2
— Beth Baumann (@eb454) July 20, 2019
Tlaib makes her cause sound noble and just, as though she's stopping segregation in its foot tracks or challenging the status quo, much like Rosa Parks did. What she did was interrupt a presidential candidate addressing business leaders. She thrashed herself around like an idiot in a business setting. This wasn't a rally. This wasn't a protest. This was a business meeting. And she turned it into a nasty scene. Why? Because she cared more about being the next highly revered woman in history.
Getting up and interrupting a speech, screaming at attendees and lacking any decorum isn't "taking a stand" for a noble cause. It's being a heckler and hecklers get kicked out of private events. No one feels even remotely sorry for you.