On Friday afternoon, a video of President Barack Obama standing up for a heckler at a Hillary Clinton rally in North Carolina went viral.
“You don’t have to worry about him,” Obama said while repeatedly calling on the audience to “hold up.”
After trying for over a minute to calm everyone, the president called for civility.
“First of all, we live in a country that respects free speech,” Obama said after nearly losing the crowd.
“Second of all, it looks like maybe he might have served in our military, and we have to respect that. Third of all, he was elderly, and we have to respect our elders. And, fourth of all, don’t boo, vote!”
At a rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump said the president’s reaction was a disgrace.
“He was talking to the protester, screaming at him, really screaming at him,” Trump said of Obama, who, by all accounts, did not scream at the protester.
“By the way, if I spoke the way Obama spoke to that protester, they would say, ‘He became unhinged!" Trump said, adding, "And he spent so much time screaming at this protester and frankly, it was a disgrace."
Trump did not reference the portion of Obama’s speech where he defended the man.
>> Click here to watch the video
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