Trump supporters surround Biden’s bus on the Texas highway

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Three Democratic campaign events have been called off in Texas over “safety concerns” after dozens of Trump supporters surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus on a freeway on Friday, resulting in a minor collision, a Democratic official said at BuzzFeed News.

The incident prompted the FBI to investigate on Saturday, the Texas Tribune reported. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.

Videos posted to social media – by members of the so-called “Trump Train” and Democratic officials and volunteers – showed dozens of vehicles waving Trump flags chasing the Biden bus as it headed from San Antonio to Austin to generate enthusiasm in the polls. stations on Friday. Neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris were on the bus.

Trump supporters using the hashtag #FollowTheBus and #TrumpTrain tweeted several videos and photos showing more than 50 vehicles waiting to follow the Biden bus down the highway.

Other videos posted by the Trump supporter showed several vehicles “chasing” Biden’s field bus down the highway.

Democratic lawmakers called the incident “aggressive and abusive conduct” and said it was part of Trump’s continued efforts to intimidate and harass voters.

“This aggressive and abusive conduct by his supporters stems from the fact that Trump continues to incite acts of intimidation and violence,” Representative Lloyd Doggett said said in a tweet, adding that it was “another more outrageous form of voter suppression.”

In fact, Trump – who called on his supporters to “watch the polls”, raising concerns about voter intimidation – also endorsed the so-called Trump train, tweeting “I love Texas”, with a video of his supporters following the Biden bus.

Last week, the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. rented the “Trump train” and urge her father’s supporters to give Harris “a good reception on the Trump train” when she arrived at McAllen to campaign on Friday.

A widely shared video showed a pro-Trump vehicle and another car that was part of the Biden campaign bumping into behind the bus on I-35 in Hays County.

Dr Eric Cervini, who volunteered to help the Biden countryside bus tour, tweeted that he called 911 after several trucks surrounded the bus and “tried to get it off the road.”

Cervini said that one of the trucks “ended up hitting a [Biden] staff car “but no one was injured.

He said the Trump trucks were “sitting along I-35, waiting to ambush the Biden / Harris field bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin.”

Travis County Democratic Party chair Katie Naranjo said Trump supporters followed the bus into central Texas to “intimidate Biden supporters.”

The New Braunfels Police Department has received several calls regarding “members of the Trump train following the Biden / Harris campaign bus,” City Manager Robert Camareno said in a statement provided to BuzzFeed News.

The officers who responded did not observe any traffic violations and no accidents were reported in connection with the incident within the city limits of New Braunfels, Camareno said.

The officers monitored the procession to the outskirts of the city and informed the following jurisdictions of “activity directed in their direction,” the statement said.

State Representative Sheryl Cole tweeted that she canceled a joint event in Pflugerville with the Biden campaign on Friday for “security reasons” after pro-Trump protesters “escalated well beyond safety limits “.

Cole spokesman Andre Treiber told BuzzFeed News his was one of three scheduled events Texas Democrats canceled on Friday for “safety and security reasons,” including an event at San Marcos and another at the AFL-CIO in Austin.

Treiber said that while there was no direct threat to any of the events, the decision to cancel them was because “tensions were mounting and things were heating up.”

“When you’re going to have a lot of people at rallies and events… we have to keep people safe,” Treiber said.

He said the “Trump protesters” followed the Biden bus all the way down the highway.

“As long as you do it safely and legally, there is nothing wrong with protesting,” Treiber said. But then the Trump vehicle collided with a car that belonged to the Biden trailer, he said, adding that it was difficult to say whether it was an accident or “something. intentional “.

In a bizarre statement responding to the incident, Texas GOP Chairman Allen West called the incident “fake news and propaganda” and urged reporters to “be prepared to lose.”

The Texas GOP said a reporter from the Texas Tribune who contacted them for comment was trying to “portray conservatives as violent radicals, even though it was leftists from Antifa and BLM who assaulted, robbed and looted fellow citizens and their property. . “

In his statement, West attacked the media for not worrying about “real violence”, referring to the deaths of three Trump supporters and falsely claiming that a “left mob” had attempted to take over storming and torching the McCloskeys’ home – a St. Louis couple charged with felony after waving their guns at Black Lives Matter protesters on their street.

“Prepare to lose… stop bothering me. Maybe Soros can cut you another check in 2022,” West said.