'Occupy' protesters disrupt Paul town hall
Keene, New Hampshire (CNN) - A handful of Occupy Wall Street activists disrupted a well-attended town hall hosted by Rep. Ron Paul at Keene State College Monday.
After a moderator announced Paul would be taking his last question, a man in the audience stood up and yelled "Mic check!"
Programming note: GOP presidential candidates face off at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, November 22, in the CNN Republican National Security Debate in Washington, D.C.
About 15 people chimed in, repeating a few lines:
"There are criminals on Wall Street who walk free. There are protesters in jail. There is something wrong with this system."
Paul listened to the chant and chatted with an aide as the protesters dominated the room. Then he leaned into the mic and asked: "Do you feel better?"
Paul explained to the audience he was "very much involved with the 99."
"I've been condemning that 1% because they've been ripping us off," he said. "The people on Wall Street got the bail-outs and you guys got stuck with the bills. And I think that's where the problem is."
The audience of several hundred, mostly students, applauded in Paul's defense.
Organizers of the event had originally set out 200 chairs but had to wheel in stacks of extra seating when students continued to pack into the hall. Dozens stood during Paul's speech.
They applauded many of the rallying points of Paul's message, including his belief United States troops should come home, and his advocacy for changing drug laws.
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Heh. Libertarians. They vote Republican but claim not to be Republicans.
Holy disinformation. Everyone attacking Ron Paul has no clue about any of his policies. That's why they resort to name calling. And those claiming that he would immediately get rid of SS and medicare, you are wrong and/or lying!!!! He has repeatedly stated the opposite and that we paid for SS, so why should it be stolen from us? Don't ask us to do your research for you, use your own brain for crying out loud. You are the reason why Amerika is ranked so low in intellect and education.
Ok for all you Ron Paul supporters, I have a question for all of you, if Ron Paul is such a patriot, stand up guy, can hold his own weight, different from the rest of the lunatics in the Republican field (well except for Huntsman, he is a stand up guy) etc....then why is he running as the Republican and not a Libertarian? If you sleep with dogs, you yourself will be full of fleas. Oh by the way, most of us in the one percent actually support the OWS movement, so much for you socialism hippy rants, losers.
I think Ron Paul wants top 1% to pay same rate of taxes as other 99% instead of paying no taxes.
OWS needs to listen to Dr. Paul, instead of interrupting. They could learn something about the true problems. He has spent over 30 years zeroing in on the corruption, and knows intricately what needs to be fixed. OWS is just taking a shotgun approach, by calling for taxation of everyone who earns a lot of capital.
#The Other Michael in Houston
Really? Have you no clue about how politics work or have you forgotten that one has no shot at winning unless they are on the republican or democratic ticket? Sersiously dude.... And what RP supporter have you ever met that supports socialism? You are so far off that I can't even begin to describe how wrong you are. Well I guess I can start with, Ron Paul is the opposite of socialism...
"Most of us in the 1% support the OWS movement"... haha!!!! OK you tricked me... your entire post was really a joke... right?
how do you know they weren't there to support them? they share common stances on a few things, and I've heard of quite a few Libertarians, and seen quite a few "End the Fed" signs at these rallys. Yeah, they interrupted him, but he didn't seem to care, and as someone else said, they seemed to cheer him on and he supports them, to an extent. They've interrupted Bachmann before, as well, and I'm sure the Tea Party rallys, a time or two, interrupted Dems back when they were pushing the healthcare bill, both which were within their rights so chill the eff out. It's not like OWS or the Tea Partiers are there to take over the town halls, they just want their respective voices heard.
I have to agree with someone elses post up top.....WHY would ows protestors disrupt a Ron Paul speech?.....Last I checked...he's on our side....well, at least he had a better response than Obama did.
Many independents who voted for Obama now realize that he is a complete liar, who broke most of his campaign promises. These independents are willing to look at Paul and many have already converted. Another portion of Obama supporters are either willfully ignorant or just plain ignorant. You see them at the OWS protests preaching socialism, demonizing capitalism, and begging Obama for BIGGER GOVERNMENT! These misinformed people are just useful Idiots for the socialists that are currently coordinating OWS. They are unable to have constructive conversations without name calling, and fail to realize the Paul is offering a legitimate solution because of his party affiliation. The liberal blogs are filled with trolls that spew misinformation about Paul and the sheep are ignorant to do any research themselves, beyond their trusted pro-obama media.
I don't think the OWS protesters were trying to crash the party, so to speak; but rather trying to get their message out. I wasn't there, but it seems in the video they politely waited until the very end of the question/answer session and then had about a 30 second blurb and let Ron Paul respond. You can clearly see in the video that the OWS protesters were actually cheering for Ron Paul near the end.
If the protesters were lemons it seems Ron Paul made some lemonade. OWS is much about waking to where you really are. How did you get there? How can I get out without letting the same people creating the problems offer solutions with more of the same problems? PRS = Create a Problem – Wait for Reaction – Offer Solution. "There's a sucker born every minute". Stop being a sucker. Other than Ron Paul what's out there is just a different flavor, gender and color of the same old mischief.
RON PAUL 2012
AUDIT THE FEDERAL RESERVE COMPLETELY
To Larry: "Ralph Nader of the Republican Party. Yelling at cars on the freeway but delivering no real anwers to problems of our time. He likes "small" government. How will Americans like no Social Security check and no Medicare?"
Please. Paul has said over and over again there is no cut off from SS and Medicare. What there will be is a cut off age at which you can CHOOSE to opt out or in to these programs. Why are you so against freedom of choice? Sorry to correct you in public like this.