Trump defends supporters who blocked a Biden bus in Texas

By Miriam Valverde - Politifact

Several videos posted on Twitter show a Joe Biden campaign bus traveling down a highway, surrounded by trucks and other vehicles waving Trump flags.

Biden's campaign said the vehicles tried to stop the bus and pull it off the highway, and that campaign members called 911 because they were concerned for its safety.

President Donald Trump had a very different take on the event.

"You see how our people, they, you know, were protecting their bus yesterday," Trump said Nov. 1 during a campaign event in Michigan.

“Because they are good.

They had hundreds of cars ”.

On November 1, the FBI San Antonio office said it was "aware of the event and investigating."

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Trump's benevolent explanation lacks evidence.

The event in question occurred on Friday, October 30, not on Saturday as Trump suggested.

Neither Biden nor Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris were on the bus.

In the vehicle were members of the campaign and Wendy Davis, a Democratic candidate for Congress from Texas, according to Biden's campaign.

The Trump campaign did not respond to our questions.

FBI investigates alleged harassment of Joe Biden campaign bus by Trump supporters

Nov. 2, 202000: 26

Surrounded on I-35 in Texas

The Biden campaign said that on October 30, a Biden campaign bus was traveling on I-35 in Texas, between San Antonio and Austin, “when several vehicles with Trump signs and flags surrounded the bus and attempted to slow it down and get it off the highway.

They got in front of the bus and slowed down to try to stop it in the middle of the highway ”.

Members of the campaign who were on the bus called the police, who helped the bus reach its destination, the campaign said.

The campaign said it canceled its events that day in the parking lot of the Texas AFL-CIO labor union in Austin and that police helped campaign workers, volunteers and allies get off the bus.

"Instead of engaging in productive discussions about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas instead decided to endanger our workers, allies, supporters and others," in a statement. Tariq Thowfeek, the communications director for the Biden campaign in Texas.

Katie Naranjo, chairman of the Travis County Democratic Party, said on Twitter Oct. 30 that Trump supporters “followed Biden's bus through central Texas to intimidate Biden supporters.

They crashed a car while shouting profanity and threats ”.

[This is how Trump changed legal and illegal immigration to the United States, and these are his future plans if he wins the election]

John Hinojosa recorded a video, which was verified by the intelligence agency Storyful on social media.

Hinojosa told Storyful that he was on his way to pick up his grandson between 2:30 and 3:00 p.m. when he saw what was happening on the freeway.

"I thought it was particularly heavy traffic for a Friday," Hinojosa told Storyful, but then began recording on his phone when he realized what was really going on.

Another video, posted by another person on Twitter, shows a side collision between a white SUV, which does not appear to have flags, and a black van with flags behind Biden's bus.

The Texas Tribune reported that the local police department had not spoken to any of the drivers who crashed and had not determined whose fault it was.

The Texas Tribune article includes a message on Twitter from a person who wrote: "Trolling is FUN."

The user called others to go to San Antonio to "escort" Biden's bus and said "we are on the bridges and will intercept at Walters / I35."

Naomi Narvaiz, a Republican Party official in the city of San Marcos, Texas, told the Texas Tribune: "We decided we would go to 35 to support our president" and said she did not see anyone "being too aggressive."

Narvaiz posted on Twitter on October 30 that the caravan had "pulled out of Hays!"

to the Biden bus.

"People like you are not welcome here!"

Our rating

Trump said his supporters were "protecting" the Biden campaign bus in Texas.

There is no evidence to show that this is what happened and the FBI is investigating.

The Biden campaign said that several vehicles with Trump supporters tried to "stop the bus and make it go off the highway" while he was traveling to campaign events.

Some Trump supporters said on social media that the intended message was that Biden's team was not welcome in Texas and a crash occurred in the process.

Therefore, we qualify Trump's claim as

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