A homeless woman holding pro-Donald Trump signs appeared to stand vigil at the Republican presidential candidate’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Thursday, one day after the star was destroyed in a pre-dawn pick-ax attack.
In video and photographs posted online, the woman can be seen sitting close to Trump’s star and holding a sign that reads, “20 Million Illegals and Americans sleep on the streets in tents. Vote Trump.”
In video, the woman says she is sitting near the star to make sure “no one messes with it,” and accuses an unspecified person or people of knocking her down.
“I’m 64 years old and they pushed me down,” the woman says in video posted to Periscope.
“`Trump’s star — which he received in 2007 for his work hosting NBC’s reality TV show The Apprentice — was destroyed early Wednesday morning by a man dressed in a construction worker’s uniform and wielding a pick-ax.
Police arrested James Otis, 53, for the crime and charged him with felony vandalism. Otis faces up to three years in jail and a $10,000 fine if convicted.
In an interview before his arrest, Otis said he had originally planned to steal Trump’s star and auction it off to benefit the women who have accused the Republican candidate of sexual assault.
“I was just so fed up, so saddened and fed up by Mr. Trump and how he continues to denigrate women, and he continues to joke and make fun about sexual violence and his own exploits against women,” Otis told the Los Angeles Daily News. “And personally, I have in my own family, several people who have been sexually assaulted, including my brother and it hurts a lot. It doesn’t go away. It’s an issue that’s very important to me.”
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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