Matthew Heimbach. Photo by Courier-Journal
During a Super Tuesday rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Kentucky, a Black protester was violently forced out by a confirmed white supremacist and others who admitted to committing the violent act. They won’t face charges, but the Black protester could.
Matthew Heimbach, head of a white nationalist group called the Traditionalist Youth Network, admitted his involvement in the recorded incident where a Black woman was repeatedly pushed and shoved as Trump supporters screamed racial slurs, according to her reports of the event.
“I was called a n—– and a c–t and got kicked out,” said Shiya Nwanguma, a respected student at the University of Louisville to a local news reporter in a video posted on Facebook. “They were pushing and shoving at me, cursing at me, yelling at me, called me every name in the book. They were disgusting and dangerous.”
Protester Henry Brousseau filed a police report after the incident, alleging that he was punched in the stomach by a woman in Heimbach’s group for shouting “Black Lives Matter,” reported the Courier-Journal.
Brousseau may face charges, but the white nationalists who were recorded attacking protesters may not because of law H.R. 347 that “prohibits the obstruction of government business and official functions and the impedance of entry or exit at any ‘restricted buildings or grounds,’ which are defined as anywhere the president or others under Secret Service protection are temporarily visiting,” according to Raw Story.
“I’ll avoid any additional Trump events to ensure that I don’t become a distraction, but the entire point of the BLM’s tactics is to push people until they push back,” Heimbach said to the Courier-Journal. “It won’t be me next time, but white Americans are getting fed up and they’re learning that they must either push back or be pushed down.”
Others in the video have been identified as well. The older man in white seen pushing the young woman repeatedly is Al Bamberger, a veteran, and Joseph Pryor, who was discharged from the U.S Marine Corps in wake of the incident.
Trump’s rallies have been a de facto safe haven for white supremacy and racism. The GOP front-runner has denied knowledge of these various groups infiltrating his campaign but has yet to disavow people like white supremacist David Duke.
In recent months, white nationalist groups have used robot-calls in support of Trump, his son recently appeared on a white nationalist radio station, and Trump claims he had no prior knowledge of or has to do more “research” about the white supremacist groups.
His rallies are places where white rage has been channeled into anti-Muslim, xenophobia and anti-BLM movement sentiments. Many GOP leaders — like Mitt Romney and House Speaker Paul Ryan — have denounced his brand of conservatism.
