During a pro-Trump rally in Washington, DC, this weekend – Trump supporters did something unthinkable. They let Black Lives Matter (BLM) counter-protesters take their stage and address the attendees of the pro-Trump rally.
As the Black Lives Matter group was marching past the rally, they began to chant, “Black lives matter,” under a chorus of boos from the pro-Trump protesters.
Although most organizers at the rally urged the crowd to ignore BLM, as if they didn’t exist, one of the organizers on stage shouted, “I’m going to let Black Lives Matter come up here while I show them what patriotism is all about, all right?”
Tommy Gunn, an organizer behind the “Mother of All Rallies” addressed the perplexed crowd, and equally confused BLM protesters, saying, “[This rally is] about freedom of speech. It’s about celebration. So what we are gonna do is not something you’re used to, and we’re going to give you two minutes of our platform to put your message out.”
“Now, whether [the crowd disagrees or agrees] with your message is irrelevant — it’s the fact that you have the right to have the message,” he said.
Accepting the offer from the organizers of the pro-Trump rally, the leader of the BLM protesters – a BLM organizer from New York City named Hawk Newsome – took to the stage. “I am an American, and the beauty of America is that when you see something broke in your country, you can mobilize to fix it.”
Newsome continued, suggesting that BLM and the pro-Trump protesters should have an event in Chicago, saying ”[you] need to protest in Chicago. Let’s take it to Chicago. Let’s bring everybody. We need to have a M.O.A.R. rally in Chicago with BLM.”
He then went on to explain to the crowd why he joined BLM, “So you ask why there’s a ‘Black Lives Matter?’ Because you can watch a black man die and be choked to death on television, and nothing happened. We need to address that.”
“We are anti-bad cop,” he claimed. “We say if a cop is bad, he needs to get fired like a bad plumber, a bad lawyer, like a bad fucking politician,” Newsome clarified. This resulted in a chorus of boos, and demands to be taken off stage by the Trump supporters… it was clear that BLM has very little credibility when it comes to claims that they don’t simply just hate all police officers.
Newsome’s unexpected and impromptu speech concluded, “We want our God-given right to freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!” the group’s leader yelled, engaging the crowd in cheers and applauds, once more. “All lives matter, right? … If we really want to make America great, we do it together!”
The crowd responded by chanting, “USA! USA!”
After the event, Newsome was approached by local media to give an account of the event. The BLM leader from New York City said that the interaction, “restored my faith in some of these people.”
“When I spoke truths, they agreed,” he said. “I feel like we made progress. I feel like two sides that never listen to each other actually made progress today.”
He added, “I expected to come down here with my fist in the air in a very militant way, and to exchange insults … if not on a grander level, and just person-to-person, I think we really made some substantial steps without either side yielding anything.” He concluded, claiming, “we really are here to help this country move toward a better place, not to destroy it.”
Reader, I leave you with one simple question; as heartwarming as this story is, do you think the alt-left and BLM would ever – spontaneously and out of principle – give pro-Trump activists the same opportunity to have their voices heard?
