A grand alliance of the media, left-wing activists, celebrities and the Republican establishment are blaming Donald Trump for the disruptions that are intended to shut down his events, so here’s a healthy dose of reality.
Highly organized, well-funded leftist activists have had it out in a big way for Trump since day one.
Readers of Breitbart News already know this, because they’ll remember Breitbart News was on the scene at the very first large Donald Trump rally, in Phoenix, Arizona, last June.
What was originally scheduled as a speaking appearance to local Republicans ballooned almost overnight into a large-scale event. As spokeswoman Hope Hicks said at the time:
Due to the overwhelming response … the venue has been changed to accommodate the thousands of people expected to attend and the event will now take place at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Aside from the line of people that stretched around the block, there was another significant contingent at the Phoenix Convention Center rally: the organized, institutional left, including groups connected with Black Lives Matter.
This wasn’t a couple of stray protesters: as this video shot by Breitbart News at the time shows, it was hundreds of loud, community organized activists intent on disruption.
https://youtu.be/vnYGKZdPWT0
The main group organizing the protest was the Puente Human Rights Movement, an Arizona group which has spent years protesting Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Joining Puente in the Arizona anti-Trump protests were representatives from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, aka MALDEF, in addition to groups La Raza and LULAC.
Black Lives Matter cofounder Opal Tometi is a board member of Puente. Tometi is also the executive director of a group called Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
The groups who coordinated to shut down Donald Trump’s rally in Chicago on Friday night included Black Lives Matter and a number of pro-illegal immigration groups— part of the web of connected institutional left groups who’ve been going after Trump from day one.
This is the reality that presidential candidates like Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio should be not just aware of, but sounding the alarm about. Rather than blaming Donald Trump, they should be educating voters and supporters of the danger posed by these well-funded, well organized groups that are trying to shut down Trump.
The radicals have only just begun their long journey to Cleveland and to the Republican National Convention this summer.
Breitbart News will continue exposing the truth about the well-funded, organized leftist groups intent on shutting down free speech.
Follow Breitbart News investigative reporter and Citizen Journalism School founder Lee Stranahan on Twitter at @Stranahan.
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