GOP Congressman Has Police Confiscate Cameras From Democrats At Town Hall
Staffers for a Republican U.S. Congressman had local police officers confiscate cellphone cameras from two Democrats at his August 22 town hall meeting while he was speaking. Although there were two cameras from the main stream media filming the event, staffers for GOP Congressman Steve Chabot of Ohio claimed ordinary citizens were not allowed to film “for security reasons,” and local police did not question the Congressman’s wishes.
Irtonically, and what should be of great concern to all Americans is that Chabot sits on the Committee on the Judiciary, the Subcommittee on the Constitution, and on the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet. Imagine the types of laws he will be crafting.
Scott Keyes of Think Progress reports the “town hall meeting was riddled with protests [Monday] as voters voiced their frustration with the GOP’s focus on deep spending cuts rather than providing jobs.”
“Fearing pushback on issues like ending Medicare and corporate tax dodging, Chabot took an extraordinary step in order to prevent a possible “Youtube momentâ€: he banned constituents from filming the town hall. Outside the town hall were multiple signs reading, “For Security Purposes, Cameras Are NOT Permitted.†In fact, on at least two separate occasions, middle-aged constituents who tried to record the public event had their cameras confiscated and were asked to leave.
“Media were permitted to record the event, making the ban on citizen cameras all the more baffling. Clearly no “security†threat existed; rather, as one of Chabot’s staffers told ThinkProgress, they wanted to “prevent†people from “making a show†of the event. Indeed, Chabot and his staff were worried enough about citizens voicing their anger at his policies that they only accepted pre-screened questions chosen by the congressman’s staff.”
Clearly this is a First Amendment issue, and the rights of these citizens were violated by the Congressman’s office and by police, all of whom should have known better, or at the very least stopped to wonder how many laws they were violating by confiscating cameras and ejecting citizens who had every legal right to attend the meeting, and to record it.
And if you think this is a partisan issue, guess again.
The leader of the ultra-right wing Tea Party group, Tea Party Nation’s Judson Phillips called Chabot “America’s dumbest Republican Congressman” for this stunt. Phillips adds,
“I don’t know any other way to put this. Chabot is a moron. First, you cannot confiscate the property of a private citizen without a warrant or some other due process. Second, and I will type this slowly just in case Chabot is reading this so he will understand this. PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT A CRIME.
“If you go in public, you can expect to be photographed and recorded on video. Perhaps Chabot should go back and read the Constitution.
“A call to Congressman Chabot’s office in Washington referred TPN to Chabot’s spokesman in his District office. Repeated calls to that office were not answered, as the line remained busy.
“Perhaps the call the Congressman should get is a call to learn what the Bill of Rights guarantees or a call to get out of his job.”
Gannett’s local news site Cinncinnati.com reports,
“Tim Burke, the chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, has written a letter to Cincinnati City Solicitor John Curp asking for an explanation of ‘the legal basis for the seizure and the enforcement by Cincinnati police of rules created by the Congressman.’
“Signs were taped to the doors to the hall where the Monday night meeting was held saying that no video cameras were allowed inside.
“But David Little, a Cincinnati Democrat working with ProgressOhio, a liberal organization, and Liz Ping, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for the Ohio House last year, were taking video at the event. Little was using an iPhone video camera while Ping, who was taping the meeting for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was using a flip video camera mounted on a stand. About 100 persons were present – most of whom were clearly not supporters of the 1st District Republican congressman.
“A Cincinnati police officer was present at the request of Chabot’s staff. Chabot spokesman Jamie Schwartz said that the House Sergeant at Arms has advised members of the House to coordinaate with local law enforcement on all public events.
“Burke also filed a public records reuest for all records relating to Chabot’s use of the city facility, any instructions given to law enforcement officials regarding videotaping, and any record relating to the seizure of the cameras.
“Schwartz said that a staff member asked the police officer to take the cameras being operated by Little and Ping. The seizure can be seen clearly on a YouTube video. The cameras were returned to the two Democrats after the meeting.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lKA07KSoaSc%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
