Protesters at Whittier College interrupted a question-and-answer session on October 5 with California’s Democratic attorney general, Xavier Becerra, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE. The protesters, joined by the conservative columnist Arthur Schaper, shouted, “Respect our president,” “Americans first,” and “You must respect our president.”
The hecklers were protesting California’s lawsuit against the Trump administration for rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to FIRE. About 200,000 DACA recipients live in California.
Mr. Schaper has a record of interrupting events hosting Democratic officials. He once interrupted a congresswoman who was educating undocumented immigrants about their rights. He said the congresswoman “took an oath to uphold [the] Constitution, and now she’s sponsoring a town hall that teaches illegal aliens about rights they don’t have.”
The Trump supporters at Whittier were so rambunctious that the event, scheduled for an hour, lasted just 34 minutes. Ian Calderon, Mr. Becerra’s interviewer, told the protesters, “It is our job to give him the attention he deserves.”
The college released a statement after the event that said learning comes from “listening carefully to people offering a different point of view.”
Correction (10/17/2017, 5:20 p.m.): This article originally stated that the heckling incident occurred on October 13.
