JAMESTOWN, Va. (AP) - A heckler who interrupted President Donald Trump's speech in Jamestown is a newly elected Muslim lawmaker from Virginia whose protests signs captured the anger felt by some over Trump's race-related rhetoric.
Del. Ibraheem Samirah held up three signs that said: "Deport Hate," "Reunite My Family" and "Go Back to Your Corrupted Home."
The brief protest by the 27-year-old Democrat came amid criticism of Trump's policy of detaining migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and the ongoing backlash over remarks he directed at four minority Congresswomen. Trump said in a tweet that they should "go back" to the "totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."
Samirah told The Associated Press afterward that he was protesting Trump's policies and rhetoric.
Also Tuesday, Virginia's legislative black caucus boycotted Trump's Jamestown appearance .
Separate Ceremony
The black lawmakers in Virginia who boycotted a visit by President Donald Trump are blasting Trump for his recent disparaging remarks about minority members of Congress.
During an emotional ceremony at a Richmond site where a notorious slave jail once stood, members of Virginia's legislative black caucus took turns criticizing Trump as the president spoke about 60 miles away in historic Jamestown.
Lawmakers who spoke at the Lumpkin's Slave Jail site said they chose to boycott Trump's speech commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first representative assembly in the New World so that they could mark another 400th anniversary. The first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619.
Del. Delores McQuinn refused to use Trump's name and instead called him "the tenant in the White House." McQuinn choked back tears as she said Trump's criticism of minority members of Congress was also aimed at "every person of color in the United States of America."
