Trial begins over Texas ‘Trump Train’ highway confrontation
Trump supporters in dozens of trucks and cars nearly caused collisions, harassing their convoy for more than 90 minutes, hitting a Biden-Harris campaign staffer’s car and forcing the bus driver to repeatedly swerve for safety.
“For at least 90 minutes, defendants terrorized and menaced the driver and passengers,” the lawsuit alleges. “They played a madcap game of highway ‘chicken’ coming within three to four inches of the bus. They tried to run the bus off the road.”
....then-President Trump...declare[d{ that in his opinion, “these patriots did nothing wrong.”
Videos of the confrontation on Oct. 30, 2020, that were shared on social media, including some recorded by the Trump supporters, show a group of cars and pickup trucks — many adorned with large Trump flags — riding alongside the campaign bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin. The Trump supporters at times boxed in the bus, slowed it down, kept it from exiting the highway and repeatedly forced the bus driver to make evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision...
On the two previous days, Biden-Harris supporters were subjected to death threats, with some Trump supporters displaying weapons...These threats in combination with the highway confrontation led Democrats to cancel an event later in the day.
And for those 90 minutes Texas cops did nothing. This is what we are up against. Theeats, violence, intimidation, voter suppression, election rigging. And it is his supporters, the MAGA extremists, and law enforcement siding with them, not just trumpie.
A prior lawsuit filed over the “Trump Train” alleged the San Marcos Police Department violated the Ku Klux Klan Act by failing to send a police escort after multiple 911 calls were made and a bus rider said his life was threatened. It accused officers of privately laughing and joking about the emergency calls. San Marcos settled the lawsuit in 2023 for $175,000 and a requirement that law enforcement get training on responding to political violence.
