President Barack Obama laughed off protesters wearing T-shirts promoting right-wing conspiracy site InfoWars and shouting “Bill Clinton is a rapist” during a Tuesday campaign rally for Hillary Clinton.
“Those folks are auditioning for a reality show,” Obama told a crowd in Greensboro, North Carolina, where his speech was repeatedly interrupted by hecklers.
.@POTUS to heckler in NC: “Try to get your own rally” https://t.co/7PwaryrCo6
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 11, 2016
InfoWars host Alex Jones, an avowed supporter of Donald Trump who recently claimed the Democratic nominee was “demon-possessed”, on Friday announced a contest for listeners who promoted the message that Bill Clinton raped women. Jones offered $1,000 to supporters who made it on TV for at least five seconds wearing “Bill Clinton rape” shirts and $5,000 to those who can be heard shouting “Bill Clinton is a rapist” while wearing the shirts.
His supporters have heeded the call, popping up at a Clinton rally in Miami and an event hosted by Bill Clinton in Wisconsin over the weekend.
In Greensboro, Obama said the protesters represented “the great thing about politics in America.”
“Folks will just do all kinds of stuff. It takes all kinds,” the president said, as the crowd chanted “Hillary!”
Obama also made a crack about Jones himself, noting that a “guy on the radio” had recently claimed both he and Clinton “smell like sulfur.”
“Ain’t that something?” Obama said, leaning down to smell his own hand before breaking into a grin. “Come on, people.”
Watch below via The Daily Beast’s Colin Jones:
This happened. Obama responds to Alex Jones saying he and Hillary are literal demons who smell like sulfur. Then he sniffs himself pic.twitter.com/GSxRsklRDf
— Colin Jones (@colinjones) October 11, 2016
I hope those people got their money upfront. Honestly though his reaction is the best you can do, laugh it off showing they aren’t getting under your skin, and then back on message.
If that was Dictator Trump up there, the protestors would be jailed and “disappeared.”
Bizarrely, that’s what many of his supporters seem to want.
Fortunately the Alt-Right movement is known for its easy sense of humor.
You won’t see any articles about Obama’s “demonic cackle”, and if you do, understand that it’s just for kicks.
Laughing at them will affect them more than commenting about them. They are jokes and deserve to be treated as such.
I would hold hands with President Obama and run through a wheat field in slow motion.