Alexi McCammond, Bustle’s associate news editor, did what the majority of New York-based reporters were doing on Monday: She went out to Long Island for the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. While there, she did all the normal things, which means she worked in the spin room, interviewed surrogates and supporters, and ran for interviews with the big names, including Trump himself.
When she had the chance, she turned on the camera on her phone, stuck her hand out, and yelled, “How would you respond to young women who are nervous about voting for you?”
Here is what she described happening in her Bustle post:
Trump then looked at me, grabbed my right wrist (which was the hand holding the phone), said, “Put that down,” and pushed my hand down.
Here is video:
When @realDonaldTrump grabs my wrist, tells me to “put that down” and pushes my phone away #Debates2016 pic.twitter.com/0puNWFfhwC
— Alexi McCammond (@leximccammond) September 27, 2016
She was careful to point out that neither her wrist nor her feelings were hurt but that it was a noteworthy moment because, in a sense, he had answered her question. It isn’t quite comparable to what allegedly happened to Michelle Fields at the hands of former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, but there are questions about the appropriateness of physically pushing reporters that are raised by both incidents.
The video has picked up some major attention in the last day and now has almost 5,000 retweets.
The scrum was just not a good place to be that night, at least for some journalists.
[image via screengrab]
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