A fight broke out in the stands at President Trump’s midterm rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Monday night, when a protester wearing a black T-shirt reading “Release the Epstein Files” interrupted his speech. Trump was in the middle of an attack on former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown at the Covelli Centre when a male rally attendee confronted the protester in the seats. Video from the arena shows the man shoving her, punching her in the face and grabbing and pulling her hair before sheriff’s deputies and security moved in, separated the two and escorted the protester out. She raised a middle finger toward the crowd as she was led away. The man who punched her stayed in the arena and was seen high-fiving others afterward.
Trump was headlining the rally for the Republican candidates he has endorsed in Ohio, Sen. Jon Husted, who is in a competitive race against Brown, and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The arena was not completely full, the protester was not the only interruption of the night — another involved a Mexican flag — and the crowd repeatedly broke into chants of “USA” as the removals played out.
From the stage, Trump watched the removal and told the crowd the protester was a paid protester, paid by the left to destroy the country, and he called the protesters scum. He repeatedly referred to the protester as “he,” saying she was going back home to Mommy. Then he mocked her appearance with the lines now circulating in the rally video:
“Oh, he’s gotta go on a diet! He’s a fat guy. Wow. Wow. Gotta go on a diet fast. We all do.”
Trump praised the law enforcement officers who cleared the stands and called the protester a “very low-class protester.” Clips of the punch spread fast online. The president’s critics condemned him for mocking the protester from the stage while she was being hit and hauled out; inside the arena, his supporters cheered the removal, and the coverage of the night reported no arrest of the man who threw the punch.
The Youngstown stop was Trump’s second Ohio rally in under two weeks, part of a closing midterm push for Husted and Ramaswamy in a state he has won three times.