Police remove Eric Cantor protesters from a hotel ballroom they rented
If you think it's extreme that Paul Ryan is now charging constituents $15 admission to his town hall events, now it appears that constituents can't even pay to be in a room next to a public event hosted by Eric Cantor.
Here's the story. This August, Eric Cantor's congressional office did not hold any town hall events for his constituents. Instead, yesterday his campaign hosted a "Cantor Advisory Council Meeting," which is a quarterly event designed primarily for his supporters. Cantor describes the advisory councils as being "open to the public," but this one was only advertised on a local tea party website. Additionally, media are barred from attending the events.
Sensing an opportunity to confront Eric Cantor over the lack of congressional action on jobs, over 200 local activists led by Progress Virginia and Virginia Organizing rented the ballroom above the one in which the advisory council was being held. However, about an hour before the meeting was scheduled to begin, hotel management appeared with a large police presence and told the activists to leave.
"Hotel management told us we had to leave immediately," saod Anna Scholl of Progress Virginia. Scholl added that about a dozen sheriff's deputies accompanied hotel management to make the demand.
When the protesters asked why they had to leave a ballroom which they had rented, hotel management at first told the protesters that someone in their group had been smoking indoors. "That was not true," according to Scholl. She noted that "someone in our group is pregnant."
When asked for another reason, management then told the protesters that the hotel was not comfortable with competing events. This is even though the activists had rented the ballroom a few days beforehand. Additionally, Scholl pointed out that "Cantor had the only other event" in the hotel that night.
A phone call was placed to the hotel to discuss the matter, but they declined to answer any questions.
The activists went along peacefully and ended up holding a rally in the parking lot of a Toys "R" Us across the street from the hotel. Blue Virginia has a video:
When asked about the protest later that evening, Cantor told local news that they were an "unproductive distraction." Here's a video of some of Cantor's interview:
There is no evidence that Cantor's campaign was involved in the hotel management's last-minute decision to remove the protesters from the ballroom. However, the shifting rationale offered by hotel management, along with the timing of their decision, is curious.
political news video which political party am i senate foreign relations committee minnesota senators and representatives
