Trump backers racially abuse BBC woman for rally report

A BBC reporter has said she faced a torrent of racist and sexist abuse from supporters of Donald Trump while covering one of the Republican nominee’s rallies in Florida.

Rajini Vaidyanathan posted a photograph to Twitter at the start of the Aug 10 rally that showed sections of the arena to be largely empty.

Unknown to her, a local radio host soon seized on the image, claiming it was altered and that the arena was, in fact, full.

Ms Vaidyanathan says she then began to receive a steam of angry and accusatory messages from Mr Trump’s supporters.

“I was accused of being a Hillary Clinton propagandist, of posting from my ‘ugly ass’ and of being a ‘servant’ of the mainstream media,” she wrote yesterday. “One person even suggested I should be arrested and tried for treason.”

Some of the abuse hurled at Ms Vaidyanathan was racist in nature.

One user who had also shared Nazi imagery told her to “leave this country now” and “go back to India”. Another called her a “lying terrorist”.

Much of the anger was focused on Ms Vaidyanathan’s role in the media, a frequent target of attack from Mr Trump and his supporters.

“Go back to sleep, filthy journalist,” one user wrote. “Don’t need your scummy lies thanks.”

Ms Vaidyanathan noted that at the same rally Mr Trump had described the media as “crooked as hell”, and the audience had turned to the press area and chanted, “lock them up!”

She said other journalists had faced similar online abuse if their coverage was perceived as negative toward Mr Trump.

Katy Tur, an NBC News reporter, needed Secret Service protection after personal attacks from Mr Trump were followed by posts online from his supporters suggesting that she be killed.

The Trump campaign has had an adversarial relationship with the press at times, and has blacklisted several prominent news outlets based on their reporting

Mr Trump himself singled out a reporter during one press conference and repeatedly called him a “sleaze”.