Politics

Animal Rights Protester Takes Microphone From Shocked Kamala Harris At MoveOn Event

Font Size:

Democratic California Senator Kamala Harris briefly lost her microphone to a protester at a Saturday event in San Francisco.

The incident reportedly happened at MoveOn.org’s Big Ideas Forum, an event held after California’s Democratic Convention that included several other Democratic presidential candidates. Harris had just taken a question from the audience about the gender pay gap when a man took the stage.

WATCH:

Video shows the protester, a man named Aidan Cook, go on stage, dodge a moderator as he took the microphone from a shocked Harris, then tell the Democratic presidential candidate that he wanted her “attention” on “a much bigger idea.”

As security wrestled him from the stage, DJ Carmen Spindiego said, “Thank you so much sir, for your big idea, but we want to make sure that we are able to get through this. It’s OK, folks. It’s OK. People have their own big ideas. But we also want to make sure we are being respectful to the folks who have come here to speak with us.”

The crowd then broke into chants of “Kamala! Kamala!” as things settled down.

“I’m good. I’m good,” Harris said. (RELATED: Kamala Harris Says She Owns A Gun — Meanwhile She Wants To Ban Them)

California animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) issued a statement calling the man an activist who wanted to encourage the senator “to support ordinary citizens rescuing animals rather than the factory farms that abuse animals,” The Hill reported.

“[F]amilies of ordinary Americans are being endangered, and whistleblowers who expose criminal violations are being targeted,” wrote Wayne Hsiung, the group’s founder. “The typical voter — especially in the Democratic Party — doesn’t approve, so we’re asking for the party to end its support for corporate Big Ag.”

Guardian reporter Lois Beckett later asked Cook if “he had considered the optics of literally taking the microphone away from women of color.”

Follow Scott on Twitter