Obama New Hampshire Jobs Speech Interrupted By Occupy Protesters
ABC News
The Occupy movement followed President Obama to New Hampshire today, where protestors interrupted his jobs speech at a high school in Manchester.
Speaking at Manchester High School Central the President was interrupted shortly after he started delivering an address calling for Congress to act on the payroll tax cut extension.
The protesters were quickly countered by students, chanting “Obama, Obama!” and several minutes of arguing back and forth ensued.
After listening briefly, the President asked the group to quiet down. “I’m going to be talking about a whole range of things today and I appreciate you guys making your point. Let me go ahead and make mine… I’ll listen to you and you listen to me,” Obama said.
Here is what the protesters intended to say, according to a paper statement distributed to reporters: “Over 4000 peaceful protesters have been arrested. While bankers continue to destroy the American economy. You must stop the assault on our 1st amendment rights. Your silence sends a message that police brutality is acceptable. Banks got bailed out. We got sold out.”
The President, who has said the Occupy Wall Street movement voices the public’s widespread frustration with the country’s financial system, later mentioned the protests in his speech.
“A lot of the folks who’ve been down in New York and all across the country in the Occupy movement, there is a profound sense of frustration, a profound sense of frustration about the fact that the essence of the American Dream… feels like it’s slipping away,” he said.