By Adrianne Uphold
The Daily Athenaeum
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Protests are in the works following the announcement of President Trump’s invitation-only town hall meeting Wednesday in Morgantown alongside Fox News personality, Sean Hannity.
(Photo via Flickr)
Mountaineers for Progress Protest Chairman Alissa Ponzurick is organizing a protest against Trump at 3:30 p.m. in the Free Speech Zone by the Mountainlair, just two hours before the interview with Trump will start.
Along with MFP, WVU student Sabrina Dahlia is hosting ‘Protest Organization Against Trump’ that will meet at 4 p.m. in the Mountainlair then walk down to the Metropolitan Theater.
MFP will take a knee outside of the Met and remain silent to protest white supremacy.
“Ours will be focused around #takingaknee against white supremacy and police brutality, and we will have a speaker from the NAACP in Charleston, JT Thomas from his radio sports show and any person willing to get up and speak at our rally,” Ponzurick said.
According to the press release from Fox News, Hannity and Trump will discuss tax reform, the economy and news of the day, and there will be time allocated for a Q&A session with the audience at the end of the interview. The interview will be pre-taped, then aired on Fox News at 9 p.m. ET on Oct. 4.
The visit to the Mountain State is sparking controversy after Trump said to CNN and tweeted that he will be visiting Puerto Rico for hurricane relief on Tuesday.
“I will be in PR (Puerto Rico) on Tues. to further ensure we continue doing everything possible to assist & support the people in their time of great need,” Trump tweeted.
Going to Twitter to discuss the devastated country, Trump congratulated Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello on the hard work that is being done there, but criticized and attacked San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.
Cruz accused the White House’s hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico of being too slow, to which Trump fired back on Twitter suggesting that the island’s residents are not doing enough to help themselves and that the mayor is a poor leader.
The news first broke from Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom, who posted on his Facebook page that the president will visitWest Virginia.
Trump last visited West Virginia for a rally in Huntington in August, the same night that Gov. Jim Justice announced his switch from Democrat to Republican. Prior to that visit, Trump made a controversial political speech at the Boy Scouts National Jamboree in Fayette County, West Virginia.
Trump said that the head of Boy Scouts called him and congratulated him on the greatest speech that was ever made to them. Boy Scouts President Randall Stephenson and Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh both denied placing any call.
Surbaugh later apologized to members of the scouting community who were offended by the political rhetoric in Trump’s July 24 speech in West Virginia.
Many WVU students took to Twitter to voice their opinions on Trumps visit.
Doors open for the town hall at 3 p.m., then the event will begin at 5 p.m. at the Metropolitan Theatre.
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