The incident with Donald Trump who had to be rushed from the stage during his speech in Reno, Nevada, turned out to be a good gift and an opportunity for Clinton's HQ to win Sunday, Yevhen Kurmashov, director of political programmes at Gorshenin Institute, has said.
"While Hillary Clinton was speaking to voters in Philadelphia, where the Gorshenin Institute team was present, most US TV channels were playing non-stop the video of Trump's evacuation from the stage in Reno by secret service officers.
Today, on Sunday, Hillary's HQ turned this picture into the top news story of the weekend. After all details of the incident became clear, and the person detained in the crowd turned out to have no gun at all, Trump became the target of ridicule in the media. Of course, mostly in pro-Democratic media. But because their coverage is much stronger than that of the Republican media, Trump found himself in a very unpleasant situation in the last days of the campaign. Just as he was in the middle of mobilising his supporters, he had to run from the stage," the expert said.
His opponents are now using the occasion to portray Donald as a coward who runs away at the first sign of any commotion in the audience. "Of course, all of this is presented in the context of the message that Trump is absolutely unfit for presidency. It works well compared with the recent incident at Clinton's campaign event during which President Obama stood up for Trump supporter who shouted anti-Clinton's slogans from the crowd.
Comparisons between these two images are very popular today and they do not benefit Trump. On the one hand, the president who calms down the guards and says that everyone in the USA has the right to free expression, and, on the other hand, there is Trump, whose gets evacuated by his guards from the stage because of the scandal in the audience. Perhaps the secret service agents acted according to the instructions, but in the public domain, this incident was a bad gift for Trump's team. Especially when it turned out that the guy who stirred up the crowd was unarmed," Kurmashov said.
The Gorshenin Institute delegation is in the USA to hold a series of meetings with politicians and representatives of various institutions and groups. It will analyse the US election campaign and its potential impact on Ukraine and the world.