Protestors booted from Giuliani event
Posted: Saturday, November 10, 2007 3:06 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. BergerLOVELAND, Colo. -- About a half dozen protestors were asked to leave a local coffeehouse Saturday where
Giuliani was visiting, after they shouted questions about conspiracies surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
No formal arrests were made, according to Loveland Police Sgt. Greg Eisentraut, but about a half dozen protesters were removed from the event, after trying to ask Giuliani whether he had advanced knowledge of the terrorist attacks. One protestor, who was detained by police, described himself as the publisher and Editor-In-Chief of New York Megaphone and was led away by officers on both arms, yelling, “I have an excellent attorney.”
“What you did was illegal,” he screamed at police officials. “What you did was a violation of the f------ Bill of Rights.”
The protesters used megaphones to scream that Giuliani had advanced knowledge of the pending towers' collapse. They also made other claims, including that Giuliani was not a true conservative because of his views on abortion. After Giuliani left, attendees honked their car horns to drown out the protestors, who remained outside the parking lot, yelling into megaphones and arguing with Giuliani backers.
Giuliani downplayed the protestors, who dogged him throughout the coffeehouse visit.
“It’s part of America,” Giuliani said. “You learn when you are mayor of New York City that people have all kinds of different opinions, all kinds of different views. It’s not anything I don’t expect; it’s not anything I haven’t faced before, probably considerably bigger than this. After being mayor of New York for eight years, I would consider this event kind of a minor, four-, five-person protest.”
He said conspiracy theorists are protesting all over the place. “It’s very sad,” he said. “It’s not true. But you’re not going to convince them it’s not true. Somehow their emotions overtake they logic and their rationality.”
A day after
McCain said the indictment of Bernard Kerik raised questions about Giuliani’s judgment, Giuliani continued to express disbelief that the remarks were McCain’s real feelings. “I will never attack John McCain personally, nor will I question his judgment,” Giuliani said. “We can have differences on policies, but I’d be very surprised if John would do that with me. We’ve been good friends; we respect each other.”
Giuliani reiterated that he made a mistake in not vetting Kerik, but said he would have to leave the matter to the federal courts. He also said he didn’t know anything about the
Clinton campaign planting questions at town hall meetings.
“I think the biggest problem for the Clinton campaign is not whether they plant questions at events,” Giuliani said. “It’s the whole shifting positions of Hillary Clinton, which I think have now caught up with her.” He then went into his frequent attacks on drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants.
