Valdosta State University students ejected from a Donald Trump rally last month appeared on CNN Saturday morning to talk about what happened on their campus.
Mia Rawls and Tatum Schindler told Saturday morning with CNN's New Day Weekend host Christi Paul that their ejection from the event has been incorrectly portrayed as a protest.
“We wanted to stand in solidarity as classmates and students in regard to the lack of communication and poor communication with our university, and the fact that we did not agree with Donald Trump coming to our campus and university,” Rawls said.
“It wasn’t a protest because we weren’t outwardly dong anything to show the fact that we didn’t agree with him being there because it was his right to be there, we respected that," she said. "Our goal was to listen to what he had to say, point blank, period.”
The appearance from the students came a day after fights between protesters and supporters led to a Trump rally having to be postponed in Chicago.
Rawls and Schindler were part of a group of of about two dozen students kicked out of the rally held in Valdosta’s gymnasium.
The students were escorted out of the rally by Secret Service agents who said Trump had requested their removal before he began speaking. Some claimed the ejection was racially motivated, but Valdosta police said the students were being loud, disruptive and cursing.
A day after the rally, Valdosta's interim president Cecil Staton issued a statement to the campus community calling what happened to the students "disturbing," but noting that the rally was a private and not school-sponsored event."
“One negative aspect of the event receiving considerable attention today was the removal of a number of people from the rally. While some are suggesting racial motives, law enforcement leaders are rejecting this claim,” read part of Stanton’s statement.
“While this is disturbing, it should be remembered that this was not a VSU sponsored event, but a private function. The Trump campaign, together with the Secret Service and other law-enforcement officials, had responsibility for such decisions, not VSU. As we reminded the campus via email last Friday, current federal law (HR 347) does not allow for protesting of any type in an area under protection by the Secret Service.”
Donald Trump has come under fire for numerous incidents at his campaign rallies in which protesters. have been kicked out of his events and violently confronted by his supporters.
The leading GOP presidential hopeful has said he would pay the legal fees of any of his supporters who “knocked the crap” out of protesters, and has spoken fondly about the “old days” when protesters were carried out on stretchers.
Trump has said he doesn’t condone the violence, but says his supporters’ anger is fueled over the current state of the country.
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