Debate interrupted by profane Zoombomber
Chat participant posted anti-LGBTQ messages
A profane Zoombomber interrupted a virtual debate this week between U.S. Rep. John Larson and his two opponents in Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District, posting vile messages in a chat window that were visible to the participants and the online audience.
“This type of hatred has no place in Connecticut,” Larson said in a written statement Tuesday.
The debate Monday evening between Larson, Republican Mary Fay and Tom McCormick of the Green Party was sponsered by the League of Women Voters of Greater Hartford and West Hartford Community Interactive.
The profane messages appeared about 15 minutes after the event began, while Fay and Larson were speaking. They attacked both candidates, as well as the debate moderator.
The messages continued for several minutes before a blue bar was placed at the bottom of the screen to block them from view until the chat function, where participants had been invited to submit questions to the candidates, was turned off. A recording of the debate has since been removed from YouTube.
Some of the messages contained sexual and anti-LGBTQ language. Fay is among Connecticut’s first LGBTQ congressional candidates.
“It was unbelievable, it was distressing, it was completely horrible, it was vulgar, it was hateful,” she said Tuesday evening. “It’s just sad. ... We have to stop it. It has to stop.”
Fay, who also is a member of the West Hartford Town Council, alerted town police Chief Vernon Riddick of the incident on Tuesday afternoon out of an abundance of caution, she said.
“I always try to err on the side of being conservative about these things, but I thought it best to make him aware and let police decide,” Fay said.
“I worried about my 10-year-old daughter,” she continued. “She watched this, she’s proud of her mom, so she’s watching the whole thing. There are a bunch of ramifications, but wesomehowhave to go after some of these people.”
The disruption follows a similar one last week where Zoombombers targeted a constituent forum hosted by U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes flinging racial slurs and playing offensive music.
Hayes, the first Black womanto represent Connecticut in Congress, shared some of the racist comments on Twitter. In a candid post on the online publishing platform Medium titled “I AmNot Ok,” she said
“Black womenare expected to press on, to ignore this behavior” and to “not talk explicitly about it because it is uncomfortable,
divisive or does not reflect the sentiments of most people.”
“We are left debating zoom security, yet not addressing the underlying issue — that pockets of racism and hate still exist right in our own front yard,” she wrote.
Her campaign reported the incident to the U.S. Capitol Police and the Newtown police.