Donald Trump Rally Interrupted by Security Scare

Security intervened at a Donald Trump rally on Friday after a man jumped into the media area and climbed railings while the former president spoke.

Video footage from the rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, showed a bearded man wearing sunglasses breach a barrier surrounding the press pen and climb a riser on which reporters and camera crews were stationed.

Security personnel pulled the man from the riser, before law enforcement took him to the ground. Law enforcement used a stun gun to subdue him, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

The man was taken into custody before being released, the Daily Beast reported, citing Johnstown Police.

No information concerning his identity or potential motive has yet been made public.

Newsweek has contacted Johnstown Police and the Trump campaign via email for comment.

As security detained and removed the man from the rally, the former president remarked: “Is there anywhere more fun to be than a Trump rally?”

Moments later, police handcuffed another man in the crowd and led him out of the arena, AP reported. It was not clear if this was related to the initial altercation.

The incident took place 75 miles from where Trump was shot at during a rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. One person was killed and two others injured, while Trump was hit in the ear.

At the time of Friday’s incident, Trump was criticizing the media for what he saw as unfavorable coverage of his campaign and the election more broadly. He also attacked CNN’s recent interview with his opponent, Kamala Harris, in which she declared that her “values” were unchanged, despite some reversals on key policy positions surrounding immigration and fracking.

Trump has made attacking the press a core part of his political campaign ever since his initial 2016 run, where he proclaimed reporters who criticized him to be an “enemy of the people.”

During Friday’s rally, the crowd booed as Trump declared there was a “lot of fake news” about him.

During the rally Trump attacked Harris, telling the crowd that she is “anti-everything that’s Pennsylvania.”

“She’s unfit to serve,” he said. “Everything she touches, she ruins.”

Newsweek has contacted the Harris campaign via email for comment.

Trump also declared he was going to win in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, in November.

“Sixty-seven days from now, we’re going to win Pennsylvania,” he said. “We’re going to defeat Comrade Kamala Harris.”

“We’re going to win back the White House,” he added. “We’re going to make this country greater than it’s ever been.”

Trump is currently polling behind Harris in Pennsylvania. FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker shows the Vice President is 1.4 points ahead, on 46.4 percent to Trump’s 45 percent.

RealClearPolitics’ polling average also puts Harris ahead, though by a margin of just 0.3 points.

Pennsylvania has voted Democrat in seven of the past eight presidential elections, opting for the Republican candidate only in 2016, when Trump won by a narrow margin of 0.7 percent.