Trump supporters met with vitriol, verbal abuse on East Bay highway overpass
LAFAYETTE -- In the Bay Area Sunday, reaction continued to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. A group of Trump supporters made a high-profile appearance in Contra Costa County and were met with a response that was anything but civil.
The Curtola Overpass in Lafayette has become a sort of gathering place for conservatives to express their views. On Sunday, it was also an example of how divided the nation has become.
"We believe in America, we believe we have a country to save!" said Lisa Disbrow, as she pointed to American flags attached to the overpass fencing. "The flags are upside down because we're a nation in distress. This is a grievous time! I'm not being quiet! I'm not going away! We're not going away!"
Disbrow, who leads a conservative group called Patriots of Contra Costa, put out a call for fellow Trump supporters to meet at the overpass. She has done it many times and it has become a familiar sight for drivers on Highway 24. The day's message, adorned with flags, was "We Have a Country to Save." That was enough to draw a pretty extreme response from some people.
"F** you! Get off this overpass, you racist f**! Your kind is not allowed up here," said one man, covered in tattoos, who approached the Trump supporters. "You come up here all the time. No one stands with you, you racist f**!"
"You are 100 percent evil..." said another enraged woman, who stopped her car in the street to berate the demonstrators. "You are 100 percent terrorist traitors to this country -- just like him! And goddam you to burn in hell! You will burn in hell! I'm sorry that the guy was an inch off!" she said, referring to Saturday's would-be assassin.
It was a startling example of what political debate in America has frequently become.
"I think what has happened is that our people don't know their own American constitutional rights," Disbrow said. "They don't know! They don't know they have free speech!"
"It's an assault, if nothing else," said Trump supporter Al Norman. "And we shouldn't have to do that. We have mostly older ladies up here waving flags. Does that really warrant the violence that's going on and the heat?"
Norman doesn't trust the government and said he believes there were larger, "sinister forces" behind the attack on Trump. He said it feels like conservatives are losing their right to free speech and that was only bolstered when a Caltrans truck showed up. There are notices on the fence prohibiting the posting of signs or flags and Disbrow said they have been kicked off the overpass six times in the past. A Caltrans worker got out to take pictures of the flags and, with several media members recording the scene, Disbrow urged her friends to make a stand. Suddenly, without explanation, the Caltrans truck left.
"They don't want the media! Whoo!" she said. "They don't want you recording this. Too many eyes! The eyes are on them! Today was the Alamo!"
Despite the reference to the Alamo, not all Trump supporters think politics should be a fight to the death. Jo Muller was disturbed by what she saw on the news Saturday but was she surprised things had gone that far?
"I probably was, yeah," she said. "Because, if he hadn't turned his head just that little fraction, he'd be dead now. I think that would be really hard on all of us. Yeah, I think that would -- a lot of people would be very unhappy about that and it would not be good. Very scary. Yeah, I think it's scary times we're living in."
It's scary because it feels like the nation has stepped over a threshold and no one on either side is willing to take a step back. As he walked away, the tattooed man turned to add one more thing to the political discussion.
"Oh, we almost got you guys last night, ha ha. F** you!"