US President Donald Trump paused a campaign rally in Gastonia, North Carolina, on Wednesday after a woman interrupted his speech, saying she was “going home to mama” before resuming his remarks.Trump initially appeared to assume that the person interrupting him was a man. “Let me see his face,” he said while looking towards the disturbance, before realising the protester was a woman. “Oh, oh, it’s a ‘she.’ Hello!” he added.“She’s going home to mama — who’s watching right now. Her mother is watching right now on television, furious at the daughter,” Trump said.The exchange was captured in a video posted by Fox News from the Gastonia rally.
Trump campaigns for Michael Whatley
Trump was speaking at Gastonia Municipal Airport while campaigning for Republican US Senate nominee Michael Whatley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who is running against former Democratic North Carolina governor Roy Cooper.The November 3 contest is for the seat being left open by Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who is not seeking re-election. Trump has backed Whatley as Republicans seek to retain the North Carolina seat.Trump also used the Gastonia rally to attack Cooper and Democrats on crime and public safety as he sought to bolster Whatley’s campaign.The Gastonia appearance was Trump’s first major campaign stop since the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas last week. Trump has promised more campaign appearances ahead of the November 3 elections and urged supporters in North Carolina to treat the contest as though he were running himself, telling them to “pretend that I’m on the ballot”.
Trump has used the ‘mom’ line before
The Gastonia exchange was not the first time Trump has responded to a rally interruption by suggesting that the protester would have to answer to their mother — before adding that the mother supported him.At a January 2020 rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a protester interrupted Trump’s remarks. “Now she’s going home to mom where she will be in big trouble,” Trump said, before adding: “Because I guarantee you that mom voted for Trump.”Trump used a similar line during his 2016 presidential campaign. After a protester interrupted a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, he told the person to “go back home to your mama” before adding: “your mother is voting for Donald Trump.”Together with the Myrtle Beach exchange last month, the earlier incidents show that Trump has returned to the same mother-themed response to protesters at rallies across different election cycles.
