Trump defends ‘swarm’ drivers; FBI investigating
AUSTIN, Texas – A caravan of vehicles displaying Trump campaign flags and signs swarmed a Joe Biden campaign bus between San Antonio and Austin on Friday afternoon, leading the Democrats on board to call 911 and cancel the Austin close of their “Battle for the Soul of the Nation” tour.
According to the Biden campaign, the vehicles surrounded the bus, trying to slow it down in the middle of the highway or run it off the road. Biden staff notified 911 and local law enforcement, and, they reported, local law enforcement helped the bus reach its Austin destination.
The FBI said it is “aware of the incident and investigating.” That prompted an unhappy response from President Donald Trump on Twitter.
On Sunday night, Trump retweeted a screenshot of the FBI statement, adding: “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!”
Neither Biden nor running mate Sen. Kamala Harris was on the bus when the confrontation happened.
Biden told reporters in Philadelphia on Sunday that he had never seen anything like the bus incident.
“It was on an interstate highway in Texas, and a bunch of Trump trucks, pickup trucks ... tried to run it off the road, they stopped in front of it,” Biden said. “And the president saw it, took the video that someone had taken, and tweeted it back out and said ‘I love Texas.’ ”
“We’ve never had anything like this – at least we’ve never had a president who thinks it’s a good thing,” Biden said.
“Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way,” Tariq Thowfeek, Texas communications director of the Biden campaign, said in a statement Saturday.
No one was injured. No one was arrested. It is evident on a video of the incident that there was a glancing contact between a black “Trump” pickup and a white car apparently being driven by a Biden campaign staffer, but no apparent serious or disabling damage.
On Saturday, Trump shared an edited video that appears to be of the incident, tweeting “I love Texas!” in all caps.
The state party and the Biden campaign did not seek to draw much attention to the highway encounter.
But other observers sought to draw attention to what they considered a potentially perilous situation. They included Dr. Eric Cervini, a historian and author from Los Angeles.
Cervini was on the scene and posted video and a series of tweets, describing the event as an “ambush” by armed Trump supporters in pickup trucks with Trump flags seeking to run the Biden bus off the road.
“They outnumbered police 50-1, and they ended up hitting a staffer’s car,” Cervini tweeted.
Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY; The Associated Press