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Protesters make presence known inside and outside
By Joe Gorman
and Graig Graziosi
YOUNGSTOWN
As 7,000 supporters of President Donald Trump started to fill the seats of the Covelli Centre on Tuesday for his Youngstown rally, protesters gathered downtown to voice their discontent.
Inside the venue, a few protesters were forcibly removed from the rally. In one instance, a pair of individuals in “proud Democrat” shirts said they were removed without causing any disturbance after a group of Trump supporters pointed them out to security.
Outside the rally, protesters were spread between two groups: the Rally to Save Our Care – led by the Mahoning Valley Democratic Party and young Democrats – in Central Square; and a national organization called Refuse Fascism that protested outside the Covelli Centre.
Speakers at the Democrat rally included Ohio party chairman Dave Pepper, Mahoning Valley Democratic Party chairman Dave Betras, state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, city council members Anita Davis, Lauren McNally and Mike Ray, Democratic mayoral candidate Jamael “Tito” Brown and Youngstown Clerk of Courts Sarah Browne Clark.
Speakers led the crowd of more than 200 in chants of “promises made, promises broken” to emphasize a central claim of the rally – that Trump has not kept the promises he made to help the working class.
David Yukon, a member of United Auto Workers Local 1714 from the Lordstown GM plant, attended the rally to show his support for the Affordable Care Act.
“I’m cared for, I’m retired Air Force, I’ve got health coverage,” he said. “But there’s other retirees, family members and all kinds of people out there who’ll lose their coverage so we’re here to support them.”
During the counter-rally, several Trump supporters drove through Central Square to yell at the protesters – and several of the protesters yelled back.
At one point, a man stepped into the middle of East Federal Street when a truck carrying large Trump/Pence flags stopped in front of the protesters and banged on the hood, before getting out of the way as the truck drove away.
Also, three Trump supporters wearing “Hillary [Clinton] For Prison” T-shirts got into a heated argument with several protesters where the square splits. The three eventually walked away.
A Rally for Our Care finished a half hour before Trump’s speech, and a contingent of the attendees from the rally relocated to the Covelli Centre to join with the Refuse Fascism protest.
Before the president’s motorcade came onto Front Street, police pushed back about 75 protesters from the lawn next to the Covelli Centre to a nearby parking lot.
The Refuse Fascism group was in front of Covelli Centre for several hours before the president’s arrival, using a bullhorn and an array of signs to argue that Trump’s presidency was illegitimate.
Several of the core members of the Refuse Fascism group were from the Cleveland and New York chapters of the group.
There were many out-of-town visitors on both sides of the crowd.
A trio of Democratic Socialists from Portage County attended the health care rally to partner with Single Payer Action Network Ohio to support single-payer health care. A Trump-supporting autoworker from Detroit was joined by a friend from Virginia to attend the rally. Another man leaving the Covelli Centre said he flew in from Florida.
Earlier Tuesday, members of the Ohio Democratic Party had a news conference outside Northside Medical Center on Gypsy Lane.
Potential cuts to Medicaid were among broken campaign promises listed alongside labeling China a currency manipulator and creating better jobs, infrastructure and health care.
Trump has failed to curtail trade agreements that have devastated the Mahoning Valley, argued Betras.
He noted the president lost Mahoning County and asked him to stop using the area “as a backdrop to make himself feel better.”
“Talk is cheap; tweets are cheap,” Betras said. “[Youngstown] isn’t cheap. We know a liar when we see one.”
Contributor: Staff writer Justin Wier