US PRESIDENT Barack Obama was interrupted while making a speech in New Hampshire this evening by a group of people claiming to be aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Obama was just minutes into presenting a speech about jobs and the US economy at a high school in Manchester, New Hampshire when the group began its statement.
As the president’s supporters began shouting back at the protesters, Obama attempted to intervene, saying: “It’s ok.”
The meeting then descended into further shouting as most of the crowd gathered chanted “Obama”:
(Video uploaded by AssociatedPress)
According to ABC, the protesters distributed copies of the full text of their announcement this evening which began: “Four thousand peaceful protesters have been arrested while bankers continue to destroy the American economy”. The statement was read in the ‘human mic’ style adopted by the Occupy Wall Street movement through which the crowd repeats each sentence after the speaker.
The president said he appreciated the group making a point and that if they listened to his point, he would listen to theirs. “You’re the reason I ran for office in the first place,” he added.
Addressing the group later in his speech, Obama said that a lot of the people involved in the Occupy movement across America feel a “profound sense of frustration about the fact that the essence of the American dream, which is if you work hard, if you stick to it that you can make it, feels like that’s slipping away. And that’s not the way things are supposed to be, not here, not in America.”
Yesterday, Occupy protesters interrupted a speech by GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul using similar methods:
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